Reunion Confusion
by crystalsaturn2000
Summary: The She Spies discover that Cross has a teenage niece that he no longer gets along with. Now they must watch her for a couple of days, all the while trying to complete their assignment. Chapter 7,8,9 now up Sorry for delay
1. Default Chapter

She Spies: Reunion Confusion

**CH. 1**

_Cross's office. Cross is at his desk, checking some information on his latest case on his laptop. His cell phone rings. He presses one final key on the keyboard and he picks up his cell phone, flipping it open._

"Cross," he says.

He waits a moment while the person on the other line introduces himself.

"Dean, hi. How've you been?" asks Cross, leaning back in his chair a little.

Dean is Cross's brother. Cross listens as he explains the situation that has recently arisen in his life. Cross's face gets serious when his brother mentions that he's getting a divorce.

"Why? What happened?" asks Cross, curious.

As his brother is explaining what happened, the She Spies walk up to his office door for their daily meeting. They see that he is on the phone, so they stand there and wait. Cross notices them moments later.

"How's Amy taking this?" he asks, motioning for the She Spies to come into his office.

They step inside and wait patiently for him to be finished. A look of seriousness passes Crosse's face one more.

"No, you can't drop her off here. I'm at work," he says.

"Drop who off?" asks DD, not able to contain her curiosity.

Cross covers the mouthpiece of his cell phone.

"My niece," he says, looking at them.

"Niece?" they say in amazement.

Their faces are filled with shock as he uncovers the phone and returns to his conversation. Cassie looks at the others.

"Cross has a niece?" she says.

"Don't look at me. I didn't know either," says Shane.

"That must be one of the things we don't know about him," says DD.

Cross looks up at them again and an idea strikes him.

"No kidding," says Shane, as Cross begins explaining his idea to his brother.

"Still, that's a major thing not to have told us about," says Cassie.

"Well, he must've had a reason for not telling us," says DD.

Cross hangs up his cell phone and looks at them.

"I do have a reason," he says.

The She Spies look at him, expectantly.

"And what exactly is it?" asks Shane.

"I had no reason to," he says.

The She Spies sigh in frustration and roll their eyes at such a vague answer.

"So you're saying that you really do have a niece?" asks Cassie.

"Yes, and she'll be at your house in half an hour. So you better get moving," says Cross.

Their mouths drop and their eyes go wide.

"What?" says Shane.

"But don't we have a mission today?" asks DD.

"Yes, that's why I'm asking Cassie to go and wait for her while Shane and DD start doing some research," says Cross.

He looks at Cassie.

"She'll be staying for a few days. I hope that's alright," he says, with a facial expression that clearly states it better be.

"Yeah, of course. But don't you think we should know a little about her if she's going to be staying with us?" asks Cassie.

"Like bad habits?" suggests Shane.

"Or allergies?" suggests DD.

"Or her personality in general?" says Cassie.

Cross nods.

"Fair enough. She's an intelligent person, though she doesn't always use it wisely. She rarely listens to authority anymore and is almost always in some form of trouble," he explains. He pauses for a half second and then adds the kicker. "Oh, and she recently checked out of rehab," he said.

"Rehab? For what?" asks DD.

"Let's just say that she's tried her fair share of narcotics."

"She's a druggie?" says Shane.

The girls look at each other while thoughts of confusion and shock fly through their minds. No one can understand how in the world someone like Cross could have a niece that's that bad.

"She used to be. Which is why I want you to keep a close eye on her to make sure she doesn't regress into her old habits. She already did that once, and we don't need it happening again," explains Cross.

"Of course," says DD, as always ready to keep someone on the good side.

"Good. She may be troublesome, but I know you can handle it."

"That's reassuring," mutters Shane sarcastically.

Cassie nods sarcastically in agreement.

"It should be," says Cross.

He looks at Cassie.

"She'll be at your house shortly, so I'd advise you get going. DD and Shane will brief you on the case later," he says.

"Right," says Cassie, turning to leave.

"Good luck," says DD offering a sympathetic smile as Cassie passes by.

"Thanks. I'll probably need it," says Cassie, leaving.

After Cassie leaves, DD and Shane look back at Cross, a million questions burning within their minds, yearning to be asked. Shane decides to yield to one of the questions and ask Cross.

"Is she really that bad?" she asks.

"Sometimes she's worse," says Cross with a hint of frustration and disappointment in his voice.

Being spies, Shane and DD notice it, but, knowing how Cross would react, they don't ask.

"So, about our mission…." starts DD.

"Yeah. What is it?" asks Shane bluntly.

Cross looks relieved to change the subject. Cross and his niece don't get along and no one but he, Amy, and her parents know the real reason, though some suspect. What adds to the confusion is that they used to get along. Fairly well, in fact, but those days are gone.

"Coincidently, I want you to find the Black Star cartel and shut them down. They've been smuggling millions of dollars worth of contraband, both drugs and other objects, into the city with the intention of selling it to their private customers to make a profit. So far no one has been able to tell how they've accomplished this," he begins.

He stands up, picking up a small remote from his desk. He turns on the display screen to show a picture of a man with black sunglasses crossing a street.

"This is Gavin Marcel. He is believed to be the son of Nikolai Marcel, the cartel kingpin. Since no one has been able to uncover the whereabouts of Nikolai, the object of this assignment is to track down Gavin. In finding him, we'll eventually be lead to his father. Once this happens, we'll be able to shut down the cartel and stop the smuggling of the contraband," he continues.

"How are we going to find him?" asks DD.

"I knew you were going to ask that," says Cross.

He walks around his desk and pushes another button on the remote. This changes the picture on the screen to show the front of a local billiard hall.

"Our sources say that Gavin frequents a place known as Magic Eight Billiards," starts Cross.

"The pool place?" asks Shane.

"Yes. I've arranged for you to play there for as long as necessary, in return for some minor housework."

"We don't have to clean any toilets, do we?" asks Shane, really not wanting to even think about the task.

"Yeah, there's an awful lot of germs on them. Especially when someone misses and hits the seat," says DD, wrinkling her nose.

"Well, it is an important aspect of housecleaning. Especially at a public place," says Cross, smirking.

"Oh, man," says Shane, disappointedly.

"Think of it this way," says DD, "A clean toilet means no germs and no germs means no one will get sick from using an unsanitary restroom."

"'Cept us," mutters Shane.

Cross looks at them, a slight smile on his face. Shane notices.

"And what are you smiling about?" she asks, still a little annoyed.

"Nothing," he says, not wanting to admit it.

"Yeah, right. You're smiling because you don't have to clean any toilets," replies Shane sarcastically.

"But you do, so I'd get going."

"Cross's right," says DD, "the sooner we start the sooner we'll be done."

"True," says Shane.

The girls turn and begin to walk towards the door, ready to get the assignment underway.

"Oh, and ladies?" says Cross.

"Yeah?" asks DD as they turn to face him.

"Don't forget to brief Cassie on the assignment," he says.

"We won't, especially with one this nasty," says Shane.

"Good," says Cross.

DD and Shane turn once again and head towards the door.

"I bet he's happy that he doesn't have to clean any toilets," mutters Shane.

DD nods in agreement as they exit Cross's office. As the girls leave, Cross shakes his head and pushes a button on the remote, returning the screen to the picture of Gavin.. He ponders the picture for a moment, sensing something familiar about it, but not quite being able to place it.

"I know I've seen him before," he says to himself, "but where?"

He doesn't have long to think about it because his office phone rings. He takes one last look at the screen before shutting it off to answer his phone.


	2. Chapter 2

**CH. 2**

Cassie is sitting on the couch in the She Spies' living room, reading a magazine and waiting for Amy to arrive. The doorbell rings and she looks up. As soon as she realizes that the doorbell has just rung, she closes the magazine and puts it on the coffee table. Then she stands up and goes to the door.

"This'll be interesting," she speculates as she puts her hand on the doorknob.

She opens the door and is in immediate shock when she sees Amy standing on the doorstep. She had figured the girl would look a little individualistic, but she was still Cross's niece, so part of Cassie was expecting her to be dresses kind of preppy. Amy has brown hair, just past her shoulders, with purple streaks on either side of her face. She is wearing a black fitted shirt with the logo of her favorite rock band on it, jeans with a chain on the right pocket, and black combat boots.

"If you take a picture, it'll last longer," says Amy.

Cassie snaps out of her shocked state and comes back to the current moment.

"Sorry, it's just that you're Cross's niece. I expected you to be-" begins Cassie, trying to explain her earlier state.

"More like him?" finishes Amy.

"Yeah, kind of."

"I get that all the time. Everyone expects me to be preppy and perfect. No one seems to think I can be my own person."

"Really?"

"Yeah. So, uh…can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure. Sorry," says Cassie, stepping aside to let Amy in.

Amy steps inside with a small bag over her shoulder that carries her laptop in it and a small suitcase. Cassie shuts the door as Amy sets the suitcase beside the couch.

"So," says Amy, setting her laptop case on the couch and turning back towards Cassie, "which one of my uncle's stooges are you?"

"Stooge?" says Cassie, curious as to why that particular word was used.

"Sorry, which one of my uncle's _agents_ are you?" says Amy, correcting herself.

"I'm Cassie," she begins. Then she realizes what Amy just said.

"Did you just say agents?" she asks.

"Yeah, so?"

"How do you know what we do?"

"Simple. I know what my uncle does. And besides, he probably thought an agent would be more strict and watchful then an average person would."

"You and Cross don't get along, do you?" asks Cassie, noting the tone of Amy's voice.

"Not anymore," replies Amy, looking away.

"Cassie can tell that she doesn't want to talk about it, so she kindly decides not to push the subject. An awkward silence follows, causing Cassie to glance around to the room, trying to figure out something to say. Amy just stands there, looking at the floor, lost in thoughts of the recent past. Finally an idea comes to Cassie.

"You hungry? We just went shopping, so the cupboards are full," she suggests.

"Cool, thanks," says Amy, happily smiling.

"No problem. You like chips?" asks Cassie.

"Who doesn't?" says Amy, smiling again.

Cassie smiles, thinking to herself that Amy didn't seem nearly as bad as Cross had made her sound. But, she reminded herself as she took a bag of chips out of the cupboard, she had only just met the girl and Cross had know her for her whole life. This implied that things would almost definitely get worse. They always did.

Several miles away, Shane and DD are finding this out the hard way. They have accepted the fact that they were going to have to do some cleanup work and were in the process of doing some now. They were in the ladies room of Magic Eight Billiards, the pool hall and bar where they were supposed to wait to see if Gavin showed up. Since Shane was so adamant about no cleaning toilets, DD agreed to take the job. In turn, Shane was supposed to clean the mirrors, sinks and floors. Everything was going fine until DD got to the last stall. She stops in her tracks and stands there, disgustedly gazing down at the mess before her.

"Ew, that is so gross," she says.

"That bad?" asks Shane, stopping in mid wipe of a mirror and turning to look at DD.

"Oh yeah," she says, looking away, disgusted.

Shane casually glances at her watch, yearning for the time when she'd be able to stop cleaning and begin playing pool. She knew DD would ask for help cleaning the bathroom stall, and she really didn't want to. Luckily for her, it was that time. She tosses the rag she had been using into the sink and wipes her hands together.

"Well, I'm done. Time to play some pool," she says, smiling and turning towards the door.

"But wait!" says DD, looking towards Shane, "Could you-"

"No," says Shane.

"But-"

"Nope," says Shane, walking out of the bathroom.

DD sighs in frustration at Shane's desertion. She glances again at the disturbing mess before her. She's not looking forward to the job ahead of her, but she knows it's necessary to complete their mission; that and the fact she knew she'd be helping to sanitize and keep people from getting sick.

Shane walks into the main part of the building, ready to begin a game of pool. She's happy to no longer be cleaning because she'd never been a big fan of it to begin with. She was one of those kids who usually had a messy room and it took a lot of effort for her parents to convince her to clean it. They even started to briber her though after a while it stopped working.

Shane looks around, searching for the empty pool table that she had been promised would be there for her and DD. She smiles when her eyes fall on it. She walks over to it casually, ready to start playing. Luckily everything had already been set up for her. She's glad because it had been a long time since she had played last and she couldn't quite remember how to set it up.

As she removes the rack from the balls, one of the patrons of the pool hall watches her. He's taken an interest in her because he thought she was very pretty and something about her made him suspect that she wasn't' a very good pool player. His suspicion is confirmed when she takes her first shot with the pool cue. The balls weren't broken very well and there wasn't as much force behind the thrust as here could've been. He smiles to his buddies and walks over to Shane's table.

"Looks like you could use a little help," he says, leaning on his pool cue.

"No thanks," says Shane, aiming her cue, "I'm doing fine by myself."

Shane takes her shot and misses.

"Oh really?" It looks to me like you just missed that shot. And you didn't break very well either," he says.

"So?" she says, not liking being corrected.

"So if you give me a chance, I could give you a few pointers."

"Oh really?" says Shane sarcastically, not sure if she could trust the guy yet.

"Yup. Watch the master at work," he said, smiling.

Shane smiles sarcastically as the man determines how he is going to take his next shot. He finds one to his liking and sends the cue ball flying into another ball, causing it and one more ball to fall into the corner pocket. Shane's eyes go wide because she wasn't expecting the guy to be so good at playing the game.

"Good shot," she says, impressed.

"Thanks. Now will you reconsider my offer?"

Shane is silent, contemplating the situation, knowing that her job didn't allow her to trust strangers. In the end it was in fact her job that drover her to her decision.

"Sure, why not?" she said, shrugging, "I guess I could use some pointers."

The man snorts.

"A few pointers? Honey, you need skill period," he says.

"Excuse me?" she says, glaring at him, "you better watch what you say. I may be a girl, but I won't hesitate to kick your butt."

"Who, hold it there," he says, putting his hands up while leaning his cue up against the inside of his elbow, "I didn't mean anything by it. Let's just play some pool."

Shane looks on skeptically as the man lines up for his next shot.

A few hours later, DD and Shane return home, happy that the night is over and that they can put all thoughts of the day out of their mind. DD especially is looking forwards to putting the thoughts or the dirty bathroom stall out of her mind. Shane wasn't in as much of a hurry to forget the night. She had actually had a fairly decent time. The man's name had been Brian and he turned out to be a nice, though very flirtatious, guy to hang out with.

Since it is so late, DD tries her best to open the door as quietly as she can, not sure if Cassie and Amy are sleeping already or not. As DD opens the door, she sees Cassie sitting in a chair, reading a magazine.

"Oh, you're up," says DD.

Cassie puts the magazine down and walks over to DD and Shane.

"Well I figured I'd stay up so when you guys got home you could tell me about the mission. Then we could get a good night's sleep before starting over again tomorrow," she explains.

"Hold on," interrupts Shane, "Where's Amy? I'm sure Cross wouldn't want her to over hear this conversation."

"Relax, she's sleeping on the couch," says Cassie.

"You sure she's asleep?" asks DD.

"See for yourself," she says, motioning to the couch.

Shane and DD look over the edge of the couch. Sure enough, Amy appears to be sleeping.

"Well, okay," says Shane, as she and DD stand up straight once again.

"It's another stolen contraband case," starts DD.

"Yeah. We have to find another cartel kingpin," continues Shane, "or in this case his son."

Cassie sighs.

" What's the name of the cartel this time?" she asks.

"The Black Star," says DD.

Amy's eyes fly open at the mention of the cartel's name. No one notices, so they continue the conversation.

"Yeah. And since the kingpin is so hard to find, we have to find his son, Gavin, in hopes that he'll lead us to him," continues Shane.

Still unnoticed by the She Spies, Amy strangely knew the name they were going to say and mouthed it along with them. What they don't know about her is that she's Gavin's girlfriend. They may not have known it then, but they'd find out soon enough.


	3. Chapter 3

**CH. 3**

The next morning the She Spies awake to the sweet smell of freshly cooked breakfast. Their noses lead their still drowsy bodies to the kitchen, where Amy is just taking a fresh batch of pancakes off the stove.

"Morning guys," she says to them, smiling.

"What're you doing up already?" asks DD.

"Yeah, you're awfully perky," says Shane.

"Kinda like DD usually is," says Cassie.

Amy smiles.

"Well, I figured that since you guys are letting me stay here I'd cook ya breakfast. It's the least I could do," she explains.

"Oh, that's so sweet," says DD.

"Yeah. Are you sure you're Cross's niece?" asks Shane, as she and the others sit down.

"Positive," she says.

She looks at the spread of food before her.

"So, you guys hungry?" she asks.

The She Spies all voice their hunger and happily dig in.

"You guys don't mind that I went through your cupboards, do you?" asks Amy as the She Spies fill their plates.

"No, of course not," says DD.

"Yeah, as long as those are the only cupboards you went through," says Cassie.

"Those _were_ the only cupboards you went through, right?" asks Shane, pausing in mid cut.

"Yes," she answers, rolling her eyes.

"Good," says Shane.

"Yeah, you can never be too careful," says DD.

"Right," says Cassie, taking a bite of her pancakes.

Later, the She Spies and Amy pull into the parking lot of the office. Once the car is parked, Shane looks at Cassie and DD.

"Are you guys sure that Cross isn't going to mind that we brought Amy with us?" asks Shane.

"Well, he did want us to check in before we continued with our…job," says DD, pausing and trying to think of the right word to say without revealing their job is to Amy because she doesn't know that Amy knows what they do.

"I know what you guys do," says Amy flatly, looking out the car window, unhappy that she has to see Cross again so soon.

They don't say anything, but the She Spies have noticed the change in Amy's attitude and demeanor since they left for the trip to the office. They figured it was because she was going to see her uncle. What they thought was weird was that she was always fine until Cross was mentioned. Then she seemed miserable and showed a bit of the attitude that Cross had mentioned to them.

"Oh," says DD.

"Don't worry. She doesn't know what our mission is," says Cassie.

Amy snorts.

"And if I did, then he'd just tell my parents and have me put in some white building where you have someone over your shoulder constantly making sure you don't do anything wrong. Or what they consider is wrong, anyway," she said, still keeping her gaze fixed outside the car window.

"I'm sure he isn't that bad," says DD.

"You'd be surprised," says Amy, getting out of the car.

The She Spies glance at each other.

"Well, it _is_ Cross she was talking about," says Shane.

"True," says Cassie.

DD nods in agreement as they all get out of the car.

The She Spies enter their office with Amy trailing a yard or two behind them. They quick make their way to Cross's office. The She Spies enter, but Amy turns and goes in another direction.

"Good afternoon ladies. I trust your night went well?" greets Cross.

"Yup," confirms Cassie.

"Despite the fact that we had to clean a few toilets-" starts Shane.

"You mean _I_ had to clean a few toilets," corrects DD.

"Hey, I cleaned some too," insists Shane.

"Ladies," interrupts Cross before they can continue fighting.

"Sorry," says DD.

"We'll get down to business in a minute," says Cross, standing up.

He looks around, searching for Amy.

"Where's Amy?" he asks.

"Oh, she's-" starts Cassie, turning around.

The girls hadn't seen Amy walk away from them, so they were expecting her to be behind them. When the realize that she's not there, looks of confusion wash over their faces.

"Not there," finishes DD.

"Then where is she?" Cross asks, crossing his arms.

The She Spies stand there for a moment, trying to figure out where Amy could be.

"Well?" says Cross.

"We'll just go find her," says Shane.

"Good idea," says Cross.

The girls leave his office to search for Amy. Cross shakes his head and sits back down at his desk.

A few moments later, the She Spies return with Amy in tow. Amy's now holding a cup of coffee.

"Found her," says Shane.

Cross stands up again and walks towards Amy.

"Where were you?" he asks.

"Getting some coffee," she answers like it's no big deal.

"This is a government office and I can't have anyone not affiliated with it running around here like it's a playground - especially not a headstrong teenager. Besides, you don't drink coffee," he says.

"How would you know? I haven't seen you around lately, surprisingly enough. I figured you'd be spying on me again," she said in a smart-alec tone, trying to push his buttons.

Cross keeps a serious face, knowing what she's doing. He really doesn't feel like having this talk at the moment, especially not in front of others.

"This is neither the time nor the place for this discussion," he says.

"Never is," she says, looking away.

Cross silently walks over to his desk as the She Spies exchange glances. He presses the intercom button on his phone to page Duncan.

"Duncan, can you come here for a moment?" he asks.

"Be right there, sir," answers Duncan from his room.

Seconds later Duncan enters Cross's office.

"You wanted to see me sir?" he asks.

"Yes. Could you please take Amy to the other room so I can talk to the She Spies?" asks Cross.

"Sure," says Duncan. An awkward silence follows. "Uh, who's Amy?"

"My niece," says Cross.

"Unfortunately," mutters Amy.

"Oh. He has a niece?" asks Duncan, looking at the She Spies.

They nod.

"Yes, I do. Now, if you'll excuse us," says Cross.

"Right," says Duncan.

He looks at Amy.

"I take it you're Amy," he says.

"Yup," she replies, "Now let's get out of here before he accuses me of something else."

"Okay," he says slowly, not getting why she was being so hostile.

He turns and leaves Cross's office while Amy happily follows him, relieved she doesn't have to talk to Cross anymore.

The She Spies look at Cross. Silence follows Amy's exit for a few moments. Finally Cassie decides to speak up.

"Um, I know you said you didn't want to talk about it-" she starts.

"I don't," he says flatly.

"Will you at least promise to tell us eventually?" asks DD, concerned.

"Alright. I'll tell you. Eventually," he says, "As for right now, we need to get down to business. How did you ladies fare last night?" he continues, changing the subject.

DD and Shane open their mouths to answer when Cross interrupts.

"And I don't need to hear about anything having to do with the bathroom," he says.

The girls close their mouths.

"Well…I was cleaning the whole night," DD starts slowly, unsure of how Cross would react to the subject, "but from what I hear, Shane had a good time last night. With her date."

DD throws a sly grin towards Shane.

"Oh really?" asks Cassie, interested.

"It wasn't a date," insists Shane.

"Well, whatever it was, I hope it didn't interfere with your assignment," says Cross

"Oh, it didn't. I was just trying to play when a guy from the next table offered me some tips on how to play better," explains Shane.

"Did you manage to get any information on the case?" asks Cross.

"No."

"Nothing?" asks Cassie.

"Nope."

"He didn't show either," adds DD, trying to keep Cross from getting overly upset with them.

"I hope you ladies do better tonight."

"Oh, we will," says Shane, acting more confident than she felt.

"Speaking of which, who's staying with Amy tonight?" asks DD.

"That depends. Which one of you feels like baby-sitting a rebellious teenager?" asks Cross.

The She Spies look at each other, unsure of what to say.

Amy is sitting in a chair in Duncan's work area, within him construct a new hidden microphone.

"So, what exactly are you making?" she asks, leaning over the edge of the desk to get a better look at what he's doing.

"A two-way pressure activated microphone for shirt collars and lapels," explains Duncan, picking up a screwdriver and attempting to screw the two parts of the microphone together.

"How's it work?" she asks.

"Well, when you exert enough pressure on the surface, it will turn on or off, depending on what position it was in to begin with," he continues, "the compact design keeps it hidden. If the prototype works I may try a new design."

"He makes another attempt to screw the two parts together. He ends up dropping the two pieces because his fingers are too big.

"Darn. Can you screw these together for me? Your fingers are smaller than mine," he says, handing the pieces to her, careful not to touch the center.

"Sure," she says, taking them from Duncan, "But if it's pressure activated, won't it always be turning on and off?"

Amy screws the parts together.

"That's the interesting part," he says as Amy hands the newly connected pieces back to him, "It keeps a fingerprint of the first person that touches the pressure pad, that way only that person can activate or deactivate the microphone. And even then, only if enough pressure is placed onto the pad."

"That's cool," she says.

Neither of them realizes yet that Amy has already accidentally touched the pressure pad. Now it will only work for her, if they even remember that she touched it in the first place.

Suddenly there is a knock on the door. Duncan and Amy look up to see Shane standing in the doorway.

"I hate to interrupt, but we have to get going," says Shane.

"Cool," says Amy, standing up and grabbing her coffee.

"Well, it was nice meeting you Amy," says Duncan, also standing.

"You too," says Amy, "and I hope that microphone thing works out for you."

"Thanks," says Duncan smiling, happy that for once someone seemed generally interested in what he was creating.

He opens his mouth to explain to Shane what they're talking about, but Shane interrupts.

"I'd ask what you were talking about, but Duncan would probably start babbling about stuff that we frankly don't have time to hear about," says Shane.

"Oh, okay," says Duncan, disappointedly looking down.

Shane shakes her and leaves the room with Amy close behind her. Cassie and DD are waiting for them by the elevator.

"So, who did my uncle convince to watch me this time?" asks Amy, taking a sip of her coffee and following her.

"Actually, DD volunteered," explains Shane, motioning to DD as they near the elevator.

"Ah," Amy looks at DD, "Do you think you're up to it?"

"I think I can handle it," says DD confidently, pushing the elevator button now that everyone was there.

"Even after you were told all those stories about me?" she asks, raising an eyebrow and taking another sip of her coffee.

"Yeah," she says, nodding.

"DD's handled some pretty tough people in her day," confirms Cassie, "Not that you'll be tough to handle."

"Yeah, you seem fine when Cross isn't around," says Shane.

"Or spoken of," adds DD.

Amy just smiles silently and shakes her head as the doors close.


	4. Chapter 4

**CH. 4**

DD sets a bowl of popcorn down on the coffee table and sits across from Amy in the living room. There is a stack of board games on the end of the table, half of which have already been played. Amy hadn't expected to have a good time, but her assumption proved wrong. DD's perkiness, though occasionally annoying, actually made her smile.

"So, what do you want to do now?" asks DD, ready to play yet another game.

Amy thinks for a moment. Her eyes fall on a deck of cards that's next to pile games and picks it up.

"How 'bout poker?" she suggests.

DD considers the game.

"Sure, that could be fun," she replies.

Amy begins shuffling the cards.

"This is gonna be different," she speculates.

"How so?" asks DD, curious.

"Well, for one thing, I'm not high," Amy replies simply, starting to deal out the cards.

"You played poker when you were high?" Didn't that affect your judgment?" asks DD, automatically worried a little.

Amy shrugs.

"Sometimes," she says, setting the rest of the deck down on the table, "but, honestly, back then I could've cared less."

"But you do now?" asks DD, glancing at her cards.

"Yeah, that's why I don't do that stuff anymore, despite what some people think."

They proceed with playing the game as the conversation continues.

"You must be talking about Cross," observes DD.

Amy looks up at her.

"How could you tell?" she asks sarcastically.

DD is silent for a moment.

"If you don't mind my asking, what exactly happened between you and Cross?" she wonders.

Amy is quiet, pondering whether or not to tell DD. Finally, she comes up with a solution.

"Let me ask you something first," she starts.

"Okay," DD says slowly, curious to see where the conversation was going.

"When something happens that makes you look bad, does Uncle Quentin give you a chance to explain yourself?" continues Amy.

"Most of the time, why?"

"But does he believe you after you explain?"

"Usually, though sometimes not at first. With Cross it can take some effort."

Amy nods to herself, acknowledging that her unspoken point was proven.

"Why? Did you do something wrong and he didn't believe you?" asks DD.

"No…and yes."

"What happened?" asks DD, very curious by now.

Amy takes a deep breath, deciding to tell DD what had happened between her and Cross. DD seems trustworthy to her, plus she figured that if she told one of the She Spies what had happened, they'd get both sides of the story and know what fully happened. Or fully to her standards, anyway.

"Back before rehab, when I was going through my "marijuana phase", Uncle Quentin caught me smoking. Instead of going to my parents, he said he wouldn't tell them if I promised never to do it again."

"That was nice of him," says DD.

"Yeah, it was. I did my best to lay off of everything because I really didn't want to get grounded for life. Besides, I was getting kind of sick of doing it so often. A few weeks later, I was walking with my boyfriend when he lights up a pipe. I didn't think much of it at the time because I was only concerned with my drug usage. I wasn't doing it anymore, but it wasn't my place to tell him what he could or couldn't do. He had to use the bathroom, so he snuffed out the pipe. He put it in his pocket. While I was outside the bathroom, waiting for him when Uncle Quentin came out of a store and saw me. Naturally, he came over to see me. I don't know if it was because he didn't trust me or what, but he couldn't have picked a worse time to do that though, because I was high from the secondhand smoke. I hadn't meant to be, but I was. I was acting like an idiot, so he could tell I was high right away. We ended up fighting, with me trying to explain it wasn't my fault. Which is kinda hard to do when you can't concentrate very well. He didn't want to hear it and dragged me home to tell my parents. None of them believed me. I guess the evidence just wasn't in my favor."

Amy sighs.

"We haven't gotten along since," she finishes.

"Wow," says DD.

"He made my parents put me in rehab, and afterwards no one would let me go anywhere by myself."

"Even the bathroom?" asks DD.

Amy nods.

"They'd have someone stand outside the door and listen."

"That's awful."

Amy nods again and looks down for a few moments.

"He never wants to talk about it because he thinks I betrayed his trust," she looks back at DD, "and you know how Uncle Quentin is. If he thinks he's right and the evidence is in his favor, it's going to take a long time and a lot of effort to get him to talk about it."

DD nods.

"Yeah, I noticed that too sometimes," she says.

Amy gives a half smile before setting her cards face up on the coffee table. DD does the same.

"I win," says Amy happily, liking the chance for a change of subject.

Cassie leans over the pool table, trying to decide on which shot is best. She picks one and takes the shot, sending the target ball straight into the pocket.

"Now that's how it's done," she says.

Shane smirks.

"Ha ha. I dare you to try and do that again," says Shane.

"Okay, I will," replies Cassie.

Cassie takes another shot and misses. Shane smirks again.

"Told ya you couldn't do it again," she says.

"Actually you dared me to do it again. You never said I couldn't," says Cassie.

"Whatever," says Shane, shaking her head, "My turn."

She walks around the table, deciding on her shot.

"Tell you what," says Cassie, "leaning on the pool cue, "You make the next shot, I'll clean the toilets."

Shane looks at Cassie disbelievingly. What she doesn't get, is that Cassie has heard how bad of a shot Shane was. She was taking a wild guess that Shane would miss.

"You'd voluntarily clean toilets?" Shane replies.

"Only if you make this next shot," Cassie answers.

"That's a deal. It's your stomach," says Shane, leaning down to take her next shot.

She takes the shot and misses.

"Oh, man," she says disappointedly.

"Looks like you better roll up your sleeves. You've got some cleaning to do," says Cassie, grinning.

"Do I have to?"

"Yup. We had a deal."

"Fine," says Shane.

She leans her pool cue on the table and walks towards Cassie.

"But you owe me," she finishes.

"Like you owe DD?" says Cassie.

Shane sighs in frustration and walks towards the bathroom. Cassie grins as she goes to take her next shot.

A little while later, the phone rings at the She Spies' house. By then, DD and Amy have decided to watch a movie. They chose to watch a comedy to help put all thoughts of the earlier conversation about Cross out of their minds. They figured it would help lighten up the situation a little since it had gotten pretty serious earlier.

"I'll be right back," says DD, standing.

"Okay," says Amy through laughter.

DD walks over to the phone and picks it up.

"Hello?" she asks.

"Hey, DD. It's me," says Cassie.

"Hey, what's up? Everything going okay?" asks DD concerned, checking her watch.

She could sense something was up because she knew Cassie and Shane weren't supposed to check in for a while.

"Well, not exactly," starts Cassie, "Shane was cleaning the bathroom-"

"Shane was cleaning the bathroom?" interrupts DD.

"Yeah, I bet that if she made a shot, I'd clean the bathrooms," says Cassie, smiling.

"And she missed," says DD, grinning to herself.

Amy giggles in the background at the movie.

"You guys sound like you're having a great time," says Cassie.

DD glances over at Amy.

"Yeah. We've played some games and now we're watching a movie," explains DD.

"Sounds fun."

"It is," confirms DD, "So why was it you called?"

"Oh, right. Shane was cleaning the bathroom when a woman who had a little too much to drink rushed in there. No sooner had the woman gotten in there, she got sick. Shane tried to help her to one of the stalls when the woman got sick again. This time it got all over Shane's shirt," explains Cassie.

"Ew, that's gross," says DD, wrinkling her nose.

"Tell me about it. Could you bring over another shirt for her?"

"Sure. We'll be down in a few minutes."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

They hang up their phones. DD walks over to where Amy is sitting.

"Sorry to cut the movie short, but I've got to run something down to the pool house for Shane," she explains.

"Magic Eight?" Amy asks, perking up.

"Yup," answers DD.

"Cool," says Amy, standing up and shutting off the tv.

Several minutes later, DD and Amy walk into Magic Eight Billiards. DD wrinkles her nose, obviously not taking to the scent of alcohol mixed with cigarette smoke. Amy, on the other hand, walked in like she could've cared less. She's been there several times before, mainly with Gavin, so she was used to the smell.

"DD, over here," calls Cassie, spotting DD.

DD smiles when she hears Cassie and walks over to her, holding the shirt for Shane. Amy is close behind her, looking around to see if she recognizes anyone.

"Hey, I brought Shane's shirt. Where is she?" ask DD.

"Oh, she's still in the bathroom. Been in there for at least ten minutes. She won't come out," explains Cassie.

"I better go give this to her," says DD, sensing how distressed Shane must be.

"That's probably a good idea."

With that, DD leaves them to go relieve Shane's stress. As she leaves, Cassie turns her gaze to Amy.

"So, are you enjoying your time with DD?" she asks, smiling.

"Yeah, she's cool. 'Course, I never knew you could play that many games in so little time," replies Amy.

"Trust me, it could be worse."

"I'm sure it could."

Cassie grins.

"So, you want to play a game while you're here?" she asks.

Amy grins.

"Sure! Rack 'em up," she says.

As Cassie racks up the balls, Amy searches for the right pool cue. As she finally chooses one, a man in his late twenties walks over to her.

"Hey! Amy! Long time no see," he says.

Cassie looks up at him curiously as Amy turns to see who was talking. Her face lights up when she sees that it's Mike, an old friend of hers.

"Mike! Hey!" she says, leaning over to hug him.

Cassie still looks confused as Amy and Mike continue to catch up.

"Who's he?" she asks finally.

"Just an old friend. I haven't seen him since before being grounded and sent to rehab. Mike, this is Cassie, a friend of my Uncle's. Cassie, Mike," says Amy.

Cassie and Mike exchange hellos. Mike then turns his attention back to Amy.

"We were all wondering when you were coming back," he says.

Now Cassie is even more confused. She has no idea who Mike meant by 'we all'. Who he was referring to was the group that Amy was always hanging out with. They too, frequented Magic Eight Billiards and knew the staff there quite well.

"Yeah, so was I. It wouldn't have been so long, but Uncle Quentin convinced my parents that it was for my own good," explained Amy, "And we all know how quickly parents take to that crap."

"Rehab's always a good idea when there's a chance that it'll help you kick a bad habit," reasoned Cassie.

Amy looks at Cassie, unamused.

"Maybe. But when it's not my fault and I'm the one who gets punished for it, it's just not fair," she says.

"What do you mean? Cross said you had a…" Cassie stops and tries to think of a word other than drugs. She's not sure if Mike knows about Amy's past with drugs or not, so she decides to be polite and not give it away. "Problem," she finishes.

"I did, but not when _he_ got me in trouble for it," answers Amy, obviously annoyed at thoughts of the past.

Almost as if on cue, Mike's cell phone rings. He looks at the number before answering.

"Hey, what's up?" he asks, glancing around and trying not to be obvious about it.

Mike had reason to be cautious because the person on the other end of the line is Gavin. He knows what Gavin and his father are involved in, though he doesn't know every detail. Mike looks at Amy as he continues to talk.

"You'll never guess who's here," he says.

He listens for a moment before replying.

"Yup, hold on a sec," he hands the phone to Amy, grinning, "It's your boyfriend."

Cassie's eyes go wide.

"You have a boyfriend?" she asks.

She's only surprised because Cross didn't mention anything about Amy having a boyfriend. Amy nods.

"Hey, baby," she says to Gavin.

All Cassie and Mike can hear is Amy's end of the conversation, so they have no idea what she and Gavin are talking about. Shane and DD come out of the bathroom at that moment and walk over to Cassie.

"Yeah, a couple days ago…What?…No, you can't," says Amy, getting stressed over something Gavin is saying.

"Who's she talking to?" asks Shane.

"Apparently her boyfriend," replies Cassie.

"She has a boyfriend?" asks Shane, surprised.

"Yup."

"That's so cute," says DD.

Amy sighs and pushes a button on the phone, ending the call. She hands the cell back to Mike.

"Everything okay?" asks Cassie.

"Yeah. He was just upset," says Amy, not explaining everything.

Gavin was angry at Cross for having Amy sent to rehab. Very angry, which wasn't a good thing.

"Is he going to be alright?" asks DD.

"Yeah. I've got an idea on how to fix things," answers Amy.

"That's so sweet," says DD, smiling.

Shane rolls her eyes at DD.

"You guys thirsty?" asks Amy.

The She Spies and Mike nod and voice their thirst. Amy smiles and looks at Mike.

"Mike, could you please ask Frankie for four of the usual. You can order what you want. Oh, and have him put it on the tab," she says.

"Sure. Be back in a minute," replies Mike.

With that, he leaves and goes over to the counter. Amy looks at the She Spies and notices the looks she's getting from them.

"I come here a lot. I know the owner," she explains.

What she doesn't say is that she knows the owner because of Gavin. The owner, Frankie, also knows about the business that Gavin and Nikolai are in. It's also Gavin's tab that she was referring to moments before.

"That's cool," admits Shane.

"You have no idea," mutters Amy.

Before the She Spies can react, Mike comes back with the drinks. The She Spies are realizing that there's more to Amy than Cross was fully admitting.


	5. Chapter 5

**CH. 5**

The next day, the She Spies walk into Cross's office for their meeting. Amy isn't with them, which quickly becomes apparent to Cross.

"Before you ask, Amy's talking to Duncan," explains Cassie.

"Yeah, she mentioned something about wanting to see how he was doing with an invention of his," adds DD.

Cross raises an eyebrow.

"I didn't believe it at first either, but that's what she said," confirms Shane.

"I see," says Cross, relaxing a little now that he knew where his niece was. "So, how did you ladies fare last night?"

"Shane got puked on," says DD, smirking.

"Hey! That was only because I was cleaning toilets. It's not my fault that lady was drunk," says Shane, defending herself.

The conversation almost continues, but Cross interrupts before it can go any further.

"I meant with the assignment," he says.

"Right," say DD and Shane.

Cross looks at Cassie, expecting her to be acting a little more mature than the other two.

"Well, we didn't have much luck on the assignment end of things," starts Cassie.

"Yeah, but we found out plenty about Amy," adds DD, only hinting about what she and Amy had spoken about the night before.

"Like what?" asks Cross, crossing his arms.

"She's got a boyfriend, for one," says Shane.

"I know that," says Cross like it was no big deal.

He only says that because he doesn't know that Gavin is her boyfriend. Amy and Gavin had always referred to Gavin as Dave, just to make sure no one would find out who he was. Not to mention the fact that Cross was remembering Amy's boyfriend as a person with dirty blonde hair. The photos that he had seen of Gavin were of him with dark brown hair. Only a select few people knew that the dark brown was his real color. The dye was just another ploy to conceal his true identity. Cross has no idea that his niece's boyfriend, the one that he has met, is Gavin, the one they're looking for.

"Really?" says Shane sarcastically.

Cross nods.

"Yes. Anything else that you found out about Amy?" he asks, interested to know if anything would tell of Amy going back to her old habits. Despite the fact they don't get along anymore, he still cared for her and he didn't want to see her falling into old habits.

"And she knows the owner of Magic Eight," added Cassie.

"Did you find out how she knows him?" asks Cross, curious.

"The only thing she said was that she knew him through a friend," explains DD.

"I see," says Cross, trying to remember if Amy ever mentioned anything about Magic Eight Billiards before. After a moment, he comes up with nothing. Since he works for the government, he can't help but be a little suspicious, especially because of what had happened in the past with Amy.

"Well, I'd advise you keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't regress into old habits," he says.

The She Spies nod in agreement and voice their agreement and voice their acceptance. They've noticed Amy seems to be hiding something, but they haven't been able to figure out what.

"As for your assignment, I hope you ladies make some progress tonight. Otherwise your record will be tarnished," he continued.

"Was that supposed to be a compliment about our job?" wonders Shane to the other She Spies.

"I don't know, but we should take it. It's not very often Cross even comes close to complimenting us," replies Cassie.

"Good point," says Shane as she and DD nod in agreement.

Cross rolls his eyes at the women's conversation and uncrosses his arms. He pushes the intercom button on his phone.

"Duncan, can you send Amy in here please?" he asks, talking into the speaker.

"I'll be there in a minute, your highness," comes Amy's voice.

Cross and the She Spies look down at the phone for a moment, having expected to hear Duncan's voice and not Amy's. The She Spies grin at Amy's comment to Cross.

A moment later, Amy comes into Cross's office, holding back a smirk. Cross stands up and walks around his desk.

"Good afternoon," he says simply, with no emotion.

Amy smirks and crosses her arms.

"Why you being so nice?" she asks flatly, feeling like her uncle was up to something since lately he rarely took the time to greet her.

"I'm just greeting my niece. Is there a problem with that?" asks Cross, crossing his arms again and leaning back on his desk.

"It is when it seems like you're up to something."

The She Spies watch in silence as the conversation continues between Cross and Amy. They know better than to interrupt a family dispute, especially one involving Cross.

"Well, judging by what they tell me," he says, motioning towards the She Spies, "It seems that you're the one who's up to something."

"Oh great. Now you've brainwashed them to?" Amy asks frustrated, uncrossing her arms.

She sighs and looks back at Cross with obvious frustration on her face.

"I haven't brainwashed them. They've become very perceptive, as it is an important requirement of this job," he states.

"Sure," she says sarcastically, looking away.

"If you would calm down, you would be able to tell that they were just looking out for you."

"You mean looking out for you to make sure I don't go back to doing drugs again," she says, looking back at him.

Before the She Spies can object to what's being said, Cross speaks.

"Have you?" he asks flatly.

"No," she replies just as flatly.

"Are you telling the truth this time?" he asks, again almost void of emotion.

"I was last time too. But did you believe me? Nooo," she said.

"So, who's staying with Amy tonight?" interrupts DD, before anything else can be said.

Cross and Amy's gazes finally unlock and fall on the She Spies. Before Cross can say anything, Amy speaks.

"Actually, I figured Duncan and I could hang out tonight," she says.

The She Spies look at her in disbelief and cross raises an eyebrow. None of them can believe that she'd voluntarily listen to someone talk technical garb for an entire night. Amy can tell by everyone's expressions that they're not completely sure she's telling the truth.

"I'm serious. He's going to help me fix my laptop," she explains.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," starts Cross, feeling that Amy might be a little too headstrong for Duncan to handle.

Amy sighs.

"Relax, Uncle Uptight. I'm not going to do anything to him. Or otherwise," she insists.

The She Spies can tell that Cross doesn't want to give in to Amy - probably because, by the way he seems to feel about her now, Duncan may not be able to handle her. Cassie speaks up, feeling that it will help the situation, even if only a little.

"You know, if Duncan stays with Amy, that means there would be three of us working on the assignment," she says.

"Yeah, and it will be easier with three of us to get information," adds DD, catching on to what Cassie was doing.

Cross contemplates the situation. His gaze settles on Amy as he realizes that he's not going to win this argument.

"Fine, but if I get a call from Duncan-" he starts.

"RELAX," interrupts Amy.

"It would be easier to relax if I could still trust you fully," he says.

Amy sighs in frustration and walks out of Cross's office. The She Spies stand there, unsure of what to do next. Cross uncrosses his arms and walks back around his desk before shuffling through some papers.

"What was that about?" Shane asks Cassie and DD.

"I'll explain later," replies DD.

"Don't you ladies have an assignment to work on?" asks Cross, not looking up from his papers.

"Right," says Cassie.

With that, the She Spies leave Cross's office, ready to continue with their mission. That and they were also ready to get away from all the tension that was filling the room.

Amy sits silently by Duncan who is sitting on the She Spies' couch. Cross and the girls decided it was best if the two stayed at the beach house, that way they would always know where they were. That, and it would be easier to sense if anything changed - whether it be a smell or something out of place.

Duncan flips the power switch on Amy's laptop, turning it on. It turns out that Amy had had a virus on her computer, which is what was making things messed up.

"If this starts up normally, the virus will be totally gone," explains Duncan.

Amy nods in understanding and waits to see if the computer will start like it should. After a few moments, the welcome screen comes up before finishing the start up process. Luckily, everything proceeds normally.

"There ya go," says Duncan, smiling and looking over at Amy.

She smiles at him, happy to have her laptop finally fixed.

"Thanks. I couldn't figure out how the heck to fix it," she says.

"Well, the problem was simple," starts Duncan, looking back and forth between Amy and the computer screen while motioning with his hands, "You must've visited a website that caused the initial download of the virus. Once it got onto your laptop, it started working it's way through the motherboard. It's a good thing you caught it so soon, because if it had seeped any further into your computer system it would've been like a virtual meltdown on your computer."

"That woulda sucked," Amy replies, thinking about what it would be like if that had happened, "Woulda had to get a new laptop."

Duncan wasn't used to having people let him finish explaining things, and he rather liked it. Amy actually found the stuff he said interesting. Sometimes anyway. Other times it seemed like babbling. In her mind, she had motives for listening to some of his speeches, which is why she was tuning in so much.

"So, you hungry? I have money for pizza," says Amy.

"Sure, I'm actually starving. I haven't had much to eat today, so food would be greatly appreciated," replies Duncan.

"Cool. Any particular toppings you want?"

"Not really. Just no anchovies," answered Duncan, wrinkling his nose a little.

"Okay. One anchovy pizza coming right up," she said, smiling.

"But I said -" starts Duncan.

"Relax, Duncan. It was a joke," says Amy.

"Oh," replies Duncan, looking down.

"I'll be right back," says Amy.

"Okay," answers Duncan.

Amy shakes her head and goes to the phone so she can order the pizza. Duncan watches her for a moment, pondering what Cross had said earlier that day.

""I don't see why he's making such a big deal out of the situation. Amy seems fine to me," he said to himself.

Amy hangs up the phone and walks back over to Duncan.

"Pizza'll be here in about half an hour," she says.

She gets a few steps towards him when she realizes that he's staring at her.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" she asks.

Duncan shakes his head and blinks, returning to the current moment. He looks at Amy.

"Sorry. I was just commenting to myself how different you were than what Mr. Cross said you were," he says.

"Everyone says that," she replies, rolling her eyes and sitting next to him on the couch, "Sometimes he exaggerates."

"Really? He doesn't seem like one who exaggerates."

"Okay, so he only does when it's about me. He's too straight-laced to exaggerate very often," she admits.

"Oh," says Duncan, absent mindedly looking at the computer screen.

After a few moments of silence, Amy plops her hands onto her knees, making a slight clapping noise.

"Well, I think I'm going to check my email real quick while we wait for the pizza," she says.

"Right. I'm just going to use the bathroom while you do that," says Duncan, standing up.

"'Kay," she says.

Duncan leaves the room to use the She Spies' bathroom. As he does his business, Amy opens her inbox. Luckily she had the type of email on her computer that allowed her to access her messages without signing onto the internet. After a few moments, she comes across and email from Gavin. Curious, she clicks on it. As she reads it, her eyes go wide.

"He was serious," she says out loud.

The email was basically explaining how angry Gavin was at Cross. He was so mad, he wanted revenge. Amy picks up her cell phone and dials Cross's cell number.

"Cross," comes Cross's voice.

"Hey, Uncle Quentin," says Amy.

"Amy? I wasn't expecting to hear from you. Did something happen?" he asks.

Cross was at home and the only calls he was expecting was either the She Spies or Duncan.

"Yeah. I got this email-"

"An email? Is that what this is about?"

Just as Amy is about to answer, she hears car brakes screeching on Cross's end, followed shortly after by a loud crash. An accident has just happened outside Cross's home, causing the power to go out. He rushes over to his window and looks outside to see the accident, naturally curious to know what happened.

"Amy I've got to go. An accident just happened and the power went out. I've got to turn the lights back on," says Cross.

"But-" starts Amy.

"I'll talk to you in the morning," he says.

With that, he hangs up the phone. Amy sighs frustrated and hangs up her cell as well. She runs her hand through her hair as she scans the email once again, trying to figure out what to do next. Her eyes fall on Duncan's keys, which are sitting on the chair next to the couch, next to his jacket. She immediately stands up and goes over to them. After picking them up, she goes back over to the coffee table and writes a quick note on a nearby pad to Duncan. Once the note is written, she stands up again.

"He's gonna pay," she says.

With that, she picks up her cell and leaves the beach house, not bothering to shut her laptop off. Seconds later, Duncan comes out of the bathroom.

"Hey, Amy. I had a question," he says.

He looks around for a moment, expecting Amy to be somewhere in sight. Just as he realizes that she isn't there, he hears a car peal out of the driveway. He looks out the window to see Amy driving away in his car. His heart starts racing as he rushes over to the window. He is unsure of what to do or think, since Amy hadn't said anything about going anywhere. He hadn't even known that she had a license. One of his first thoughts is that Cross may've been right about her. As he thinks and worries, his eyes fall on Amy's laptop screen. He notices something on the screen and goes over to read it.

"Oh no," he says, immediately nervous after he reads the email.

Then he sees Amy's note and reads that as well.

"She _was_ telling the truth," he says to himself.


	6. Chapter 6

**CH. 6**

Later that night, the She Spies are once again at Magic Eight Billiards. The traffic in the building was about the same as it had been for the past few nights. So far, there has been no sign of Gavin. The cleaning has already been done for the night, so the girls were free to play pool.

"It was nice of Amy to let us use the tab," says DD, taking a sip of her soda.

"Yeah. Even I have to admit that that's cool," agrees Shane.

"Yeah. Are either of you guys noticing that Amy's fine until you mention Cross?" asks Cassie, asking what they had all noticed within the past few days.

"Yeah, I wonder what happened between them," says Shane.

DD takes that moment to explain everything that Amy told her the night before. Since they hadn't known anything about it previously, Cassie and Shane listen intently.

"So, what you're saying is that Cross has always been overly judgmental," says Shane.

"Sounds about right," agrees Cassie.

"Have you guys ever wondered why guys are always so difficult?" asks DD.

"Only every day of my life," answers Cassie.

The girls begin to continue their game of pool when Brian, the guyShane met two days before, walks into the pool hall followed closely by a group of his guy friends. What the She Spies don't see yet, is that Gavin is in the group. They don't see him because he is towards the back of the group, trying to remain at least slightly hidden until he knew the coast was clear. He always had to be careful since he was related to a cartel kingpin. DD looks up as she awaits her turn and notices Brian.

"Hey, isn't that the guy you were playing pool with yesterday?" she asks Shane.

Shane and Cassie look up. They still don't see Gavin yet, mainly because they're looking for Brian.

"Yeah," says Shane, smiling and thinking about the night before. It had been nice to let go a little and flirt, after all, it wasn't very often her job allowed her to do so.

"Not bad," says Cassie, smiling and looking back at Shane.

"I know," says Shane, grinning in reply.

DD and Cassie grin as well.

"Now if only we could have the same luck with our mission," says DD.

"Right?" says Shane.

As Cassie leans over to take a shot with her pool cue, she glances up towards Brian and the group he's with. At that moment, one of the guys moves to the side, revealing Gavin. He had sensed the coast was clear, so he knew it was safe to move out into the open (or so he thought).

"Speak of the devil," she says.

DD and Shane look from Cassie over to where Gavin is to see that the person they had been searching for for the past few days has finally arrived. They almost want to smile at having made some progress, but they don't because they know that it's time to get serious and down to business.

"You know, I've never liked that phrase. It implies that you were talking about the devil, which is kind of creepy," speculates DD.

"Hey, some people do like to talk about him," says Shane, "Emphasis on the word 'him.'"

"Yeah, but still," says DD.

Cassie rolls her eyes.

"Well, as much as this talk about religion is enlightening, I'm going to go propose a game with Gavin," she says.

As Cassie walks over to talk to Gavin and his friends, DD looks back at Shane.

"You don't talk about him, do you?" she asks, worried and returning to their previous conversation.

"C'mon DD. Do you really think I'd do something like that?" asks Shane.

"Well, no, but-"

"There ya go," finished Shane.

DD just looks at Shane for a moment. After a few seconds, she starts taking the pool balls out of the pockets to set up for the next game. As Shane begins to do the same, Gavin and his friends look over towards them. The guys grin and look at Cassie, seeing that her friends were good looking as well and agreeing to the game.

DD and Shane finish setting up for the game just in time for Cassie to return to the table with Gavin, Brian, and a third person in tow. The rest of the group goes off to do their own thing, all the while staying close enough to jump to Gavin's aide, should he need it.

"So I hear you girls think you can take us on," challenges Gavin as the third guy goes to grab pool cues for the three of them.

"Think? I know we can kick your butt," Shane challenges back.

"Oh, I see," says Gavin, grinning to his friends cockily.

The She Spies glance at each other, annoyed at being underestimated. Sure, they didn't know how well Gavin and his friends played, but they were confident in their own abilities. Then again, they had to keep the guys interested so they could achieve their mission.

"Good, 'cuz we will," confirms DD, doing her best to sound tough.

"Then let's play," replies Gavin, giving a confident smile.

Each group locks gazes with the other, as if to prove how tough they are. Their gazes remain that way for several moments, before the game finally starts.

A while later, the game is still going. By then, both groups are enjoying themselves. Up until then, the She Spies had been trying to gain the guys' trust. Nothing about the cartel has been mentioned since the girls found it best to make sure the guys were at least temporarily on their side; otherwise they'd have next to no hope in their assignment.

Cassie takes her turn, and misses the pocket. She did it purposely, hoping to keep the guys interested long enough to get some information out of them. Luckily, it's working.

Gavin looks at his buddies and smirks. As he does so, the girls exchange glances as well, deciding then was the time to try and get some information. The guys (not Gavin) had been hinting about things for a while, trying to make themselves seem smart while at the same time not giving away anything. The She Spies could tell, but they bit their lips, biding their time.

As the third guy, Luke, takes his shot, DD looks at the table, taking the first leap into their investigation.

"I read something interesting in the paper today," she says to Cassie and Shane.

Gavin glances at DD, interested, but trying not to seem too much so. He knew if he seemed like he was paying too much attention, his cover would be blown. He had learned long ago the tricks of seeming nonchalant.

"Oh really? What's that?" asks Cassie, acting like she didn't know anything about what DD was referring to.

"They've recovered a valuable set of ancient artifacts in Peru. They're supposed to be worth millions of dollars," continues DD as Luke takes his shot.

Gavin exchanges a glance with Brian. They've heard about the artifacts. In fact, the cartel was involved in negotiations to steal them while they were en route to the United States. The cartel stood to gain at least several millions of dollars if they succeeded in the transport.

"Yeah, weren't they nervous someone was going to try and steal them?" asks Shane.

"Probably, since the carbon date revealed them to be really old and, in such good condition, their value is higher than the average artifact," says Gavin like it was something that everyone should know, not just the son of a cartel kingpin involved in smuggling much of the same items into or out of the United States for profit.

All three She Spies look at Gavin, holding back smirks at having his knowledge proven. They were also happy that that part of their mission was established. Gavin notices the looks he's receiving and spouts off what is usually a very believable excuse. It would've been too, if the She Spies hadn't already known who he was.

"I read a lot about that sort of thing since ancient stuff like that interests me. It has been since I was little. It's like looking through a window into the past," he says.

"Oh, really? You must know a lot then," speculates DD, trying to entice Gavin to reveal more about the cartel or at least some moreof whathe knows.

Just as Gavin opens his mouth to say that he knows a fair amount, with no intention to reveal how much, his cell phone rings. He opens it up as the girls look towards his phone, annoyed at having their progress interrupted. Despite this, their experience tells them that the phone call may help them achieve their goal for their mission. Unfortunately for them, it's Amy on the line.

"Hello?" says Gavin, keeping his face blank as he answers the phone.

"You're in trouble," says Amy, cutting to the chase.

Gavin's face gets serious at those words. He can tell instantly that it has to do with the cartel, since that's the only thing that would get him into trouble at the moment. The cartel was really the only thing he worried about, since he didn't want to blow the chance at making a lot of money. That and he didn't want to go to jail.

"Are you sure?" he asks, making sure to keep his voice neutral so it wouldn't give anything away to the She Spies.

"My uncle has three agents working against you. They're probably there now."

As Amy goes on to describe how DD, Cassie, and Shane look, Gavin glances up at them to see if they were the three that she was describing, all thewhile making sure to chime in with random replies so no one would suspect anything.

"Okay, thanks. Be out in a minute," he says after Amy explains she'd be at the pool hall shortly. He could sense that it was imperative to get out of there as soon as possible.

With that, he hangs up his cell and places it back in his pocket.

"Well, sorry to play and jet, but a coworker of mine brought an issue to my attention that demands immediate intervention," Gavin says, phrasing it so it would sound normal while at the same time letting Brian and Luke know that something was up.

"What's wrong?" asks Cassie as Luke and Brian exchange a quick glance.

"Nothing I can't handle. I'll have to take a rain check on the game though," he says.

On that note, he turns and walks towards the door.

"But-" starts Shane, taking a step after Gavin.

She, like the other girls, was a little frustrated at having the progress that they had finally achieved interrupted. If they let him leave, it may be a while before they'd run into him again. If they couldn't catch up with him, they'd have to hear it from Cross, in his serious and un-subtle way of giving them one of his "pep talks".

Instantly Brian and Luke stand side by side in front ofShane so she can't get to Gavin. The She Spies now know that the jig is up.

"I thought we had something special," Shane says to Brian, feigning disappointment.

"Sorry to disappoint you sweetheart, but the only loyalty I have is to my job," Brian replies as Gavin slips outside.

"Us too,"replies Shane.

At those words, a fight begins. Before it gets too far, Luke puts his fingers to his mouth and lets out a loud, shrill whistle, signaling for the other guys they had come in with to help them. Sure enough, the others soon enter the fray to help defend their friends. As things continue, it becomes apparent to the guys that the girls are a lot stronger than they had originally thought.

Outside, Gavin waits with his arms crossed, impatiently tapping his foot. He knows that the feds could be on him at any moment and he wants to get out of there as fast as he can.

"C'mon," he says impatiently.

Seconds later, Amy pulls up in Duncan's car. Gavin sees her and rushes over.

"Took ya long enough," he says as he opens the door.

Amy's face remains serious as she rolls her eyes and absent-mindedly rubs her right arm, waiting for him to get into the car. What most people don't know is, despite having been together for over a year, they fought constantly, often making up shortly after. Other times, things would get physical and, quite often, Amy would end up with a new bruise.

"It wasn't that long of a wait," she mutters as he gets into the car.

After shutting the door, Gavin looks at her, seeing that she was a little annoyed. At the moment, he didn't care that much, he was more concerned with getting himself out of there before the She Spies came out of the building.

"Thanks for the tip," he says simply as Amy stops rubbing her arm.

"When those I care about are in trouble, I do what I can to help," Amy replies just as simply, putting her hand back on the wheel and peeling the car out of the parking lot, the sudden speed causing a loud noise.

Their destination is a nearby warehouse that is used for a lot of cartel related stuff. Amy's been there before, so she knows the way quite well. In fact, she knew the password to get in and even had her own key. She had been involved in drugs before, even selling some on occasion for money, and that's how she met Gavin - when he was looking for a fix. He knew instantly she wouldn't take any crap. After getting to know each other, he found out that her uncle was a federal agent. He knew they got along and was wary of her for a while, but he figured that someone who had an inside source might be good for the cartel - maybe even to steer federal traffic away from his father's cartel. His father posed a test, unbeknownst to her, and she passed with flying colors, earning the trust of the cartel. Because of this, she was often involved in some of the deals that went through the cartel. After going through several deals successfully, she even earned a rank in it, so she had some authority. She kept all this secret, especially from Cross.

A little while later, the fight has ended at Magic Eight Billiards. The end victory was, of course, the She Spies'. As they leave the pool hall to try and find Gavin, Cassie's cell phone rings. She takes it out and looks at the caller ID.

"It's Duncan," she observes, a little confused.

DD and Shane exchange glances, wondering why he would've called. They knew he wouldn't call unless it was an emergency, since they were working on a mission.

"Hey, Duncan. What's up?" asks Cassie, pressing the speakerphone button.

"Uh, yeah. It seems Amy decided to take my car on a joyride," begins Duncan.

"She took your care?" asks DD disbelievingly.

"Now I'm really questioning her relation to Cross," mutters Shane.

DD nods in agreement as Cassie tries to get more information out of Duncan. They know that if anything happens to Amy, Cross would be angry. If he got angry, they'd be in trouble and none of them particularly felt like getting chewed out by him any time soon.

"Is she there now?" asks Cassie.

"No, but I think I know where she is," he continues, "and it has to do with Gavin Marcel."

The She Spies exchange confused glances, unsure as to why and how Amy could have connections to Gavin - especially one that Cross didn't mention. They figured that, if it was true, he either didn't know about it or he was too ashamed to mention it.

"We'll be right there. Thanks Duncan," says Cassie.

With that, she hangs up her cell phone and looks at Shane and DD.

"Is it just me or are things getting weirder and weirder with Amy?" she asks.

Shane and DD nod as the three walk towards the car.

"I guess that proves she _is_ related to Cross," says Shane.

"Yeah, they both hide an awful lot," adds DD.

"Well, if things keep going the way they are, we may be finding out more soon enough. Probably more than we want to know," says Cassie, as they get into the car.

The girls nod once again in agreement, amazed at all that's been happening in the past few days. Everything started with them finding out that Cross had a niece that he had never mentioned - not even once. Things just seemed to escalate from there. And, at the rate things were going, they would only escalate more.

A little while later, Duncan is pacing back and forth by the She Spies' front door, anxiously awaiting their return. As he does so, he gently clasps a silver locket in his hand. He had found it on the floor next to the coffee table. Amy had accidentally dropped it there earlier that day and neither had noticed. What made things interesting to Duncan was that the photo inside was of Gavin. He knew thatthe She Spies, and Cross, would be interested to know his findings, though he figured he'd talk to the girls first, not wanting to get Amy in trouble (or himself, since he knew he'd get yelled at for letting her leave the house in the first place).

Moments later, the front door of the beach house is opened, signaling that Cassie, Shane, and DD are home. The second Duncan sees them, he stops pacing.

"Boy, am I glad to see you guys," he says, walking over to them.

"We got here as fast as we could," says Cassie.

"Yeah. So, where's Amy?" asks Shane, wanting, like the others, to find her and Gavin as soon as possible.

"Well, judging by the locket I found, I'd say she's with Gavin Marcel at the moment," he says, handing the locket over to DD.

DD opens the locket while the other two look over her shoulder. All three of them hold back gasps as they see the picture of Gavin.

"How'd she get a picture of Gavin in her locket?" asks Shane.

"Unless…" speculates Cassie, realization hitting her.

"Gavin's her boyfriend," finishes DD, realization striking her as well.

"Boy, would Cross love to find this out," says Shane.

"I'm sure he would. And there's something else you may want to take a look at," he says.

He walks over to the coffee table and sits down in front of Amy's laptop. He presses a button to get it out of sleep mode. Once the picture is on the screen again, it reveals the email that Amy had received from Gavin earlier that day. As the girls read the email, their eyes go wide.

"Wow," says Cassie, at a loss for other words.

"He sounds mad," observes Shane.

"Maybe we should call Cross," says DD, sensing the urgency of the email.

"That's a good idea. But might I suggest listening to a proposition that Amy informed me of first? She explained a few things to me earlierthat you might want to know about. She knew you guys would want to contact Cross once you found out, so she asked me to tell you about them."

There is a chorus of agreements before Duncan goes on to explain what Amy had said to him over the past day or so. All three girls find everything interesting, even a bit intriguing. They don't go over it for long though, because they know they have to act fast before Gavin gets too far away. Than, and they knew if Amy got into trouble they would too. Either way, things were about to get very interesting.


	7. Chapter 7

**CH. 7**

Back at the warehouse, Amy stands alone in a large room, waiting for Gavin to return from talking with his father. She's leaning back on an office desk, thinking about what she's going to do. She knows that Gavin wants to kill Cross for sending her to rehab. Nikolai would surely go along with it, knowing that Cross was a fed and it would mean one less agent on their trail.

Amy smirks at the thought of Gavin and her uncle. Both seemed to have anger issues a lot of times, though Gavin more definitely so. The smirk left her face when her thoughts returned to the fact that she had to make a choice - save her uncle and risk the cartel wanting to kill her for betraying them or let him die to keep Gavin and the others out of jail. Either way, she felt she had certain loyalties to them both. She loved them and knew one was going to be very angry with her. After a few moments of consideration, she nods to herself, knowing that the decision she had made earlier was the right one. She could only hope that she could be forgiven for what she had to do.

She doesn't have much time to think about her decision because the door opens and Gavin walks into the room. She looks up at him as he walks over to her.

"Dad'll be out in a minute," Gavin informs her.

He had went to tell Nikolai about what Amy had relayed to him earlier that night. It was vital that the cartel knew everything they could about any impending confrontations with the FBI.

Amy gives a half smile, but says nothing. For the first time that night, Gavin notices that something is bothering his girlfriend.

"Everything okay? You look upset," he observes.

"Just thinking about Uncle Quentin," she says, glancing down at the floor.

At the mention of her uncle, an angry expression crosses Gavin's face.

"He shouldn't have narked on ya," he says, annoyed at the memory.

He had always been quick to act on anger, and this was no exception. He didn't like when people tattled on him or his friends. Despite how often they fought, he liked Amy a lot, which is why he had gotten so angered about Cross telling Amy's parents about her drug habit. He also felt it was no one's business what any of them were doing.

"That may be so," says Amy, looking up at him, "but you shouldn't want to kill him because of it."

"And why not?" he asks, standing up, obviously annoyed, "You didn't need rehab. There's nothing wrong with a little creative recreation."

"Still," says Amy, looking back down at the floor.

Gavin sighs in frustration at having his girlfriend disagree with him. He was used to getting his way and hated when he didn't.

"If you felt that way, then why did you let me know there were federal agents on my tail?" he asked.

At those words, Amy looks back up at him, a new fire in her eyes.

"Because I'm sick of being pushed around and someone's got to pay," she says, anger finding its way to into her voice.

Gavin grins at her words, feeling that was a confirmation that she agreed with him. Now that he was getting what he wanted, he was happy again.

"That's my girl," he says.

With that, he leans over to kiss her. She leans into it, kissing him back. Sure, they fought a lot, but she still had feelings for him. What they don't realize is that Nikolai has entered the room with two of his bodyguards behind him. He stands there for a moment, expecting them to hear him enter the room. After a few seconds, he realizes that they hadn't heard his entrance and clears his throat. This time they hear him and stop kissing.

Amy and Gavin look up to see Nikolai and his lackies standing a few yards away. They immediately straighten up, knowing that now was the time for business talk. The cartel couldn't afford any mess-ups now.

"Amy, nice to see you again," starts Nikolai.

"Nice to see you too, sir," replies Amy.

Nikolai smiles and shakes his head.

"Amy, sweetheart. How many times have I told you to call me Niko?" he says.

"Too many times to count," she says, smiling.

Nikolai continues to smile in reply as he walks closer to Amy and his son, stopping right in front of them. He wants to get down to business as soon as possible, knowing that the feds could be at their door at any moment, waiting to foil the cartel's efforts for good.

"My son tells me you saved the cartel by deterring some federal agents from our trail," says Nikolai.

"Yeah. I overheard some of my uncle's agents talking and found out they were going after Gavin to get to you. I felt it was my duty to the cartel to get him out of there as soon as possible," explains Amy.

Nikolai smiles to himself, feeling that his son had chosen well for a girlfriend. Despite originally being an outsider, Amy had proven herself to be one of the few people that he could truly count on to get things done. Her apparent reaction to finding out what her uncle was up to was just a confirmation of the fact.

"Well, my dear, what do you suggest we do about this impending invasion?" he asks, knowing that Amy would have something up her sleeve.

Amy grins in reply, proving that she had a plan.

Outside, the She Spies and Duncan quietly survey the scene of the warehouse that the cartel calls home. They're across the street, sitting in their car, readying themselves for the upcoming confrontation. Cassie looks out the driver's side window through her binoculars to make sure that there is no one in the area and that the coast is clear.

"How's it look?" asks DD from the passenger seat.

"Unusually quiet for a cartel house," replies Cassie, handing the binoculars to Shane, who was motioning for her to hand them over.

Shane looks through them to see if she can observe anything that Cassie hadn't seen. She, too, doesn't find anything useful.

"You're right. They must have some high tech surveillance to not have any guys out on guard," she observes from the seat behind Cassie.

"That or they're just really good at hiding," says Duncan.

Shane and DD look at Duncan as all the girls roll their eyes. Even though he had made a good point, it was still a lame comment to them.

"What?" asks Duncan, not understanding their reactions as Cassie returned her gaze across the street.

"Never mind. It's time to move in," says Cassie.

She turns to look back at the rest of the group.

"You all remember the plan right?" she asks.

All three of the others nod. On that note, they all exit the car, being careful not to slam the doors. They know it would give away their location immediately if they were to be careless in exiting the car. They figured that they were being expected, seeing as how the had tried chasing after Gavin when he left the billiard hall, so even if they were quiet, they'd probably be found out shortly anyway.

They cross the road in their usual careful manner. Naturally, when they get across, they need to climb over a high fence. As the girls prepare to climb, Duncan looks up at the wall nervously. Shane notices his facial expression first.

"What's the matter Duncan? Afraid of a little fence?" she asks him as Cassie throws the rope and its anchor over the top.

"No," he says, trying to sound sincere, but not quite sounding or looking like he truly meant it, "I'm just not to keen on the sudden drop with the possibility of broken bones."

The girls shake their heads as DD climbs over the fence first. Cassie looks over at Duncan who had turned to watch DD moments before.

"Don't worry. You'll be fine," says Cassie.

"Are you sure?" asks Duncan nervously.

"Of course," says Cassie, offering a friendly, reassuring smile.

Duncan is silent for a moment, glancing up at the fence and feeling as if his coordination wouldn't be enough to get over in one piece. He knew he had brains but was never sure of his strength. He wasn't very confident, even though he knew it was something simple. He just didn't want to look like a complete idiot in front of the girls, especially DD.

"Do it for DD," says Shane, keeping a straight face but wanting to smile at the same time.

Duncan considers the thought for a moment. He really likes DD, but he doesn't want it to be obvious to the other two She Spies. What he doesn't know is that they already know he likes her. His pride keeps him from an immediate reaction. Instead, he pauses once more, considering the climb.

"Okay," he says, bravely stepping up to the rope that the She Spies had set up for the climb.

Cassie glances over at Shane and smiles behind Duncan's back as he begins to climb over the fence. Once he is out of hearing range, she walks over beside Shane.

"Good idea," she acknowledges.

"Hey, I thought it made sense. He was checking out her butt," says Shane, shrugging and grinning at her friend.

Cassie returns the grin. They both know that Duncan has liked DD for a while, but they choose not to say anything. Most of the time. Other times they enjoyed giving innuendos and then laughing later - especially when DD doesn't get what they're talking about.

Back at the cartel warehouse, Amy has walked outside. She's leaning on the wall beside the door with her eyes closed and arms crossed. She knew that Duncan and the She Spies would be there shortly since they wouldn't abandon the object of their current FBI mission. She made sure they'd show up by saying in the note she had left for Duncan where the warehouse was located, knowing that he'd contact them once he realized that she had left. She had also informed Nikolai that she knew the FBI agents would be there soon, which is why she was outside alone. Nikolai understood that it would be easier to get to the agents through Amy, so he agreed.

A few moments later, Duncan walks quietly towards Amy, looking around him as he does so. He knew that in this business nothing was ever safe. As he gets within a few yards of her, she speaks.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up," she says, opening her eyes.

"I tried to get here as soon as possible, but I had to wait for the She Spies to get back to the beach house," he explains.

"So they _are_ here," she says, looking around.

"Yes."

"Good," says Amy, grinning.

With that, she walks over to him and runs her hand along his neck collar and towards the lapel, looking for something. Duncan doesn't move.

"It's a shame things had to happen this way. You're kind of cute," she says.

Duncan's face blushes while a confused expression covers his face, having not expected her to compliment him. He wasn't used to getting complimented by anyone, let alone a girl.

"Uh, thanks," he says slowly.

Amy finds what she is looking for, the pressure activated microphone that was attached under Duncan's shirt collar. She grins.

"No. Thank you," she says, sliding the microphone off of the collar and into her hand.

She suddenly puts her fingers to her mouth and lets out a loud whistle. Seconds later, two of the guards come out of nowhere and approach Duncan, pulling his arms behind him roughly, despite his protests. They usher him inside quickly before anyone can see them.

Amy watches them enter the warehouse before turning back towards the lot in the front of her. She presses the pressure pad on the microphone and then holds it near her mouth.

"You want him, come and get him," she says.

Back inside the warehouse, Duncan is now tied to a chair in the same room that Amy had been in moments before and the bodyguards are standing on either side of the door. There is also an extra bodyguard standing next to the window. Nikolai is sitting at his desk, leaning back in the chair just a little. Gavin is standing right next to him as they all await Amy's return. Duncan glances around nervously between the Marcels and the bodyguards, thinking about everything that Amy had mentioned before. His nerves were slowly getting the better of him, now that he was surrounded by the bad guys. It didn't help that Cross would be angry that he was doing such field work. He was supposed to be doing computer or camera work, not sitting in the middle of the danger.

Seconds later, Amy enters the room, the microphone nowhere in sight. Duncan's gaze falls on Amy as he studies her, looking for the microphone. He knew she had taken it from his shirt collar and was trying to see if she had done anything visible with it or just tossed it aside.

"Ah, I see you've met the boys," she says to Duncan, walking over to stand in front of him.

"Yeah and can I say their hospitality leaves something to be desired," he mutters nervously while at the same time trying to be brave, not daring to look at any of the men in the room.

"Well when you have people that are genuinely concerned with their job, they don't focus on hospitality. They focus on their jobs," says Amy.

"Yes, and when then do so, they do it well," says Gavin, walking over to his girlfriend.

Amy rolls her eyes quick enough so that only Duncan see and then smiles up at Gavin.

"Thanks baby," she says.

Gavin smiles back and leans down to give her a quick kiss on the lips.

"As touching as this moment is, we must get down to business. When can we expect the federal agents to show up? And can they be trusted to show up in the first place?" asks Nikolai, standing up as well.

"Of course they will. Though grossly underappreciated for what he does, Duncan is an asset to their team. From what I hear, they never leave a friend or coworker behind," explains Amy.

Duncan smiles at her comments, but as he unintentionally makes eye contact with one of Nikolai's lackies, the smile quickly leaves his face. He was happy that someone has finally acknowledged his work, even if it was under such fragile circumstances.

Almost as if on cue, they hear a sudden crash in another room, causing everyone's head to fly in the direction of the door. Amy meets Gavin's gaze and grins.

"Perfect timing," she says.

Nikolai motions to his bodyguards to go and investigate the crash. They, in turn, rush out the door. He grins as Amy and Gavin follow his bodyguards out the door.

The scene that awaits them is exactly what they expected - a violent fight going on between the She Spies and the body guards. The fight continues for a few moments, before promptly ending through the usual manner - forceful blows to the men's torsos. The girls look up at Amy and Gavin as they dust themselves off.

"You know, for being a highly rated cartel, the security is really crappy," says Cassie.

Amy shakes her head.

"Oh how simply you underestimate me. I, like my uncle, am very resourceful," she says.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asks Shane.

Amy glances up at Gavin, who grins. As they had been talking to the She Spies, several more members of the cartel had snuck up behind the girls. They were standing as still as statues, awaiting the signal to move in and grab them. Gavin takes that moment to give a slight nod, giving the men the signal they were waiting for.

Before the girls can react, the men have walked up behind them and grabbed them by the arms.

"Hey!" comments DD, "That's not being very nice."

"I don't think they're trying to be nice DD," replies Shane.

"You think?" replies Cassie, blowing some fallen bangs out of her face.

"Tie them up and put them in the back office," says Gavin, motioning towards the back of the warehouse, "We'll have dad come in in a minute and figure out what to do with them."

The lackies nod and proceed to take their guns out of their pockets and use the blunt end to knock the girls on their heads, knocking them out. This is to ensure that they don't try to get away before they get them to the back room and secured.

Amy looks away, not quite being able to watch the scene. The girls were always nice to her, despite everything that Cross had told them. She even considered them friends. It hurt to see them treated that way, but she knew that it was necessary to get things done. Sometimes sacrifices needed to be made to have things work out in the end. Hopefully, this would be one of those times that it did.


	8. Chapter 8

**CH. 8**

One by one, minutes later, the She Spies awake in the back office of the warehouse, their heads still sore from being hit just moments before. They groan a little bit, voicing their pain, but are soon coherent enough to think once again.

"I don't know about you guys, but I wasn't expecting the blow to the head," says Shane, finding her voice first.

"Neither did I, but you'd figure we'd be used to it by now," replies Cassie.

"I don't think anyone ever gets used to getting hit in the head," says DD.

The girls nod in agreement. They look around the room and test the ropes that are around their wrists. To their dismay and expecting, they're tied quite tightly. After a moment of silence, Shane speaks.

"So, do you think this is going to work?" she asks.

"I hope so. Otherwise we're toast," answers Cassie.

"I like toast, but only with butter. And cinnamon and sugar. They make it taste better," says DD.

Shane rolls her eyes at DD's comment as Cassie allows a small smile. One of them was always good to say something funny to lighten up the situation. Of course, sometimes things couldn't be lightened very much, but most of the time, it helped to keep their minds open and ready for things to come. After another moment of silence, DD speaks up with one of the concerns that was on all their minds.

"I wonder how Duncan's doing," she wonders.

"Yeah, I hope he's okay. He doesn't normally go into the field like this," says Shane.

"I'm sure he's fine. If everything goes according to plan anyway," says Cassie.

"Way to sound confident," mutters Shane.

Before anyone can say anything else, the doorknob turns. Their bodies tense up at the sound. The surprise is on them though, because it's Amy that walks through the door. The She Spies don't say anything, but watch to see if there's anybody behind her. Luckily, there isn't. Amy shuts the door behind her and walks over to the girls.

A moment of silence follows, everyone unsure of what to say. Finally, Amy rubs her hands together and speaks.

"They think I'm in the bathroom, so we have to make this quick," she says to them.

The girls sigh in relief, suspecting that they were safe for the moment. They get serious quick though, knowing that they don't have long before things will get dangerous again.

Without saying anything, Amy takes two instruments out of her pocket - a steak knife and a pair of scissors. She puts one in each hand and walks behind them. The girls are a little nervous, because they're tied with someone close by holding sharp instruments. They weren't as nervous as they'd usually be though, because of what Duncan had told them earlier. And as they suspected, she puts them by the handle into the hands of Cassie and Shane.

"So why are you doing this? I thought you hated Cross," asks Cassie as Amy takes a second pair of scissors out of her pocket and goes to work on cutting DD's ropes.

"Yeah, when Duncan mentioned what you had planned, we were a little surprised," adds Shane.

"Especially since you could literally cut the tension with a knife every time you guys were in the same room," says DD.

Amy is silent for a second, thinking of how to phrase what she'd decided earlier that day. In the end, she says what's in her heart.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. He may treat me like a kid and not believe me, but he's my uncle and there's no way I'm going to let anyone take the life of someone I care about. No matter how he treats me, he doesn't deserve to die. If I have to put my life on the line to protect him and prove that I'm not what he thinks I am, then so be it," she says.

"Aww, that's so sweet," says DD.

"If only he could see that," mutters Amy, standing up and putting the scissors back in her pocket.

Suddenly the door opens. All of their heads fly up. Standing there is Nikolai, along with a couple of his lackies. Confusion is on his face.

"Amy, dear, I thought you were in the bathroom," says Nikolai, confusion in his voice.

Amy straightens up and does her best to put her previous persona on. She knows that the slightest slip is going to mean all of their heads. All of her experience in the past with the cartel taught her that Nikolai is a very intelligent person, so she was going to have to step carefully if she wanted to get out of this alive.

"I came in here because I wanted to make sure that they weren't trying to escape. Plus I figured it would be fun to rub my success in their faces," lies Amy.

"May I ask why you're standing behind them then?"

"I wanted to make sure the ropes were tight enough. I wanted my uncle to suffer at the thought of his favorite agents getting caused unnecessary pain," she replies, thinking quickly for an excuse.

Nikolai is getting suspicious of her actions, despite how she had proved her loyalty to the cartel in the past. He's noted Amy's difference in demeanor from before and now suspects that something's going on that he's not aware of. He motions for one of his men to walk around and check to see if the ropes were tied or not. After a moment of looking, he notices that the ropes are all cut. One look from him, and Nikolai knows that he has been betrayed.

"Perhaps we were too hasty in welcoming you into our family," says Nikolai, catching on to the fact that Amy wasn't acting on their side anymore.

"Perhaps your son was too hasty is deciding to try and kill my uncle, fed or not," says Amy, putting on a brave face.

As if on cue, the She Spies drop the instruments that had cut their ropes and jump up. Nikolai automatically motions for his men to fight the women. As the fight begins, the man that had been standing by lifts up a chair, intending to hit one of the girls.

"Hey!" she says to him.

This causes him to turn around to face her, chair in mid-air. Without wasting any time, Amy lifts her knee to kick him in the groin. When he doubles over, she picks up another chair and brings it down hard on his back, knocking him to the ground. She quickly tosses the chair aside and makes her way around the others and out of the room, leaving the fight to the professionals.

Amy knew she had been pushing buttons and treading in dangerous territory, but she felt it had to be done. Her life had been so complicated lately, but she knew she was making the right choice. She could only hope that things would work out the way they were supposed to and that Cross would believe what she had told the others to tell him. If he didn't, then, well, things may not end up as rosy as she had hoped.

Amy swiftly makes her way to the room that Duncan had been being held in. She wanted to free him as soon as possible so they could get out of there if things went sour. She hoped that the She Spies would be okay. She figured that they would be, since they had seemed to be held high in her uncle's mind.

Amy gets to the room and opens the door. Luckily, it had been left unlocked. She didn't care that that seemed suspicious, she just wanted to get in and out as fast as she could. Duncan is still sitting in the chair with a nervous look on his face.

"We have to get out of here," she says, walking into the room.

She stops in her tracks when she sees the look on Duncan's face. He keeps looking behind her. Slowly she turns around to see what he's staring at. Unfortunately for her, it's Gavin. He's very angry at her for betraying his trust and now there was a different Cross he was focused on getting revenge on.

"I'm afraid that's not going to happen," says Gavin, shutting the door and standing in front of it so there was no way out.

Amy is temporarily frozen in place, having not expected this turn of events. Gavin stands there, glaring at Amy, angry that she betrayed him and the rest of the cartel. He wasn't happy and that was becoming increasingly obvious to both Duncan and Amy.

"How could you do this to us?" asks Gavin angrily.

"How could I do this to you? How could you think that I'd be okay with you wanting to kill my uncle?"

"He betrayed you. You should've agreed with me. You acted like you hated him," he argues.

"Maybe for a while I did, but he's still my uncle," she says.

Gavin is really angry at this point and backhands Amy across the face. She wasn't braced for the hit, so she falls into the nearby desk, knocking some of the wind out of her lungs. Duncan just watches in horror, unable to move and do anything to help.

Gavin approaches his girlfriend. He flips her around so she's on her back, leaning on the desk. He glares at her and goes to his her again, but this time she's prepared. She lifts up her leg and kicks him right in the stomach. This causes him to fall back a little, holding his stomach. She quickly runs over behind Duncan and takes the scissors out of her pocket and hands them to him so he can cut his ropes.

"Quick, get yourself out of here," she says.

Duncan nods, but doesn't say anything. Since he's not used to being in the field, he was getting nervous and scared and was anxious to get out of there. He immediately goes to work on his ropes, carefully watching what's going on with the other two.

Amy turns just in time to see Gavin stand up again. She knows a little about fighting from the times she had fought with him or seen him fight before. Plus, it always helped that she had seen some movies with the subject in them.

"No one double-crosses a Marcel," growls Gavin, putting his hand behind him.

Amy knows that he had a habit of carrying a gun, so she takes no chances and dives at him, tackling him to the floor. A struggle ensues. Gavin ends up punching up at Amy, hitting her in the cheek. When she lifts up her hand to nurse her face, he flips her off of him. Then he straddles her and puts his hands around her throat, trying to choke her.

"No one double crosses a Marcel and lives," he says, tightening his grip.

By now, Duncan is free. He notices what Gavin is doing and looks around the room to see if there's something that will aid him in helping Amy. He finally decides on the chair he had been tied to. He picks it up and walks over to Gavin. He hesitates for a moment, really not wanting to hurt anyone, but he knows that it'll help save someone's life. He lifts up the chair and uses all the strength he can muster to smack Gavin on the back. He also hits Gavin's head enough to knock him off of Amy, unconscious.

Once Duncan realizes that Gavin's detained for the moment, the drops the chair and rushes over to help Amy up. With his aide, she is able to sit up, still gasping for breath. She sits there for a moment, leaning on Duncan. Once she is able to breathe normally again, she speaks.

"Thanks Duncan. I owe you one," she says, wiping the blood from the fight off of the corner of her mouth.

"It was the least I could do. You're one of the only people who actually listens to me. Besides, I couldn't let him kill you," he explains.

"You sure it's not because Uncle Quentin would be mad?" she asks jokingly, looking up at Duncan.

"No. You're a good person," he says.

Amy smiles at him. After another moment, she sighs and stands up.

"Well, I might as well take this so he can't use it," she says, leaning over and pulling Gavin's handgun out of the back of his pants, "Maybe we can find a useful way to dispose of it."

At that moment, the She Spies walk in the door. The first scene they scene is Amy standing over Gavin with a gun. They automatically fear the worst.

"Oh my god. She shot him," says DD, as Duncan stands up and dusts himself off.

"And we thought Cross was bad," says Shane.

Cassie nods in agreement.

"Relax. I didn't shoot him," assures Amy, putting the gun in the back of her belt for the time being.

The girls sigh in relief. If she would've shot him, especially with malicious intent, they'd have a lot of explaining to do to Cross. And none of them were sure they were ready to deal with that quite yet.

"Then why were you holding a gun?" asks Cassie.

"I took it out of his pants after Duncan played hero and hit him over the head with a chair because he was choking me. I figured that it was the safest thing to do in case he woke up," Amy explains, smiling.

"Aww, that was so sweet," says DD, looking at Duncan.

Duncan looks down and blushes. He's not used to getting any attention from anyone, let alone the good kind. Of course, any attention from DD was usually a good thing in his book.

"I just did what anybody would do," he says.

"Anybody with a heart," says Cassie.

Duncan smiles in reply, still a little embarrassed at having attention focused on him.

"So, what did you do with the others?" asks Amy.

"Ah, we just gave them a taste of their own medicine," says Shane.

"Yeah, they're tied up in the other room, unconscious and waiting for the police to come," adds DD.

"Are you sure you got them all?" asks Amy.

"All the ones in the room and any that got in our way, why?" says Cassie.

"Did you get Niko?" asks Amy, more urgent now.

"He slipped out while we were fighting the other guys," says DD.

"Oh no. The passage," says Amy, her eyes going wide.

Without explaining, Amy runs past the She Spies and out the door. What they don't know is that Amy knows of a secret passage out of the warehouse. Nikolai doesn't know that she knows about it, so there was still a chance of her being able to catch him. As she ran, she couldn't figure out why she was trying so hard. She had achieved what she wanted, stopping Gavin from getting to her uncle. Now she was going after something bigger.

The She Spies look after her, knowing that they should follow her, for more reasons than one. They glance at each other, contemplating the next best thing to do.

"You stay here with Gavin," Cassie says to Duncan, figuring that that would be the best thing (and it would be easier for him, since Gavin was unconscious).

Duncan looks horrified. He doesn't want to stay with someone who was as violent as Gavin seemed to be, unconscious or not. He wasn't used to being in the field and was as such, not used to having to deal with the bad guys directly. Because of all of this, even thinking of it made him nervous.

"But-" protests Duncan.

"You'll do fine," insists DD.

"Yeah, he's unconscious," adds Shane.

"Just pull the cord off the phone and tie up his hands with it," says Cassie.

"Yeah, that way if he wakes up, he won't be able to get away," adds Shane

"Okay," he says slowly, a nervous look appearing on his face once again.

"Shane! Stop freaking him out," says DD.

"What? I was just telling him the truth," defends Shane.

"I know, but still," says DD.

With that, the She Spies run out of the room, leaving Duncan staring down at Gavin, nervously. For a moment, he looks back and forth between him and the phone, knowing he has to act quick so should Gavin wake up, he could be detained properly. All the while, Duncan didn't want to be near him, so it would prove to be a very interesting task, indeed.

As the She Spies leave the room, they notice that Amy is nowhere in sight. They stop in their tracks, trying to figure out which way to go. Their thoughts are cut short when the police burst through the door, with Cross right behind them. When they see the She Spies, they stop. As they stop, Cross comes to the front of the group. The girls see this and quickly walk over.

"Where are the others?" asks Cross.

"Duncan's in the room over there with Gavin," says Cassie, pointing to the office.

"You left him with a criminal?"

"It's not like that. Gavin's unconscious," explains Shane.

"Yeah, he even knocked him out and saved Amy's life," adds DD.

"I see," says Cross.

He doesn't let the emotions he's feeling show on his face, but he's getting more worried by the minute, both because of Amy missing and the mission's possibility of being achieved. He motions for some of the policemen to go get Gavin and Duncan out of the room. As they oblige, the girls explain that there's more men in the back office, pointing them in the right direction. Cross immediately tells more of his men to go and get them. Finally, Cross turns skims the area. When he doesn't see his niece, he turns to the She Spies, a serious look on his face.

"Where's Amy?" he asks.

The girls' faces get serious. This makes Cross nervous, but he doesn't show it.

"She took off after Nikolai. Said something about a passage," explains DD.

"You let her go off after a cartel kingpin by herself?" asks Cross, crossing his arms, annoyed.

"She didn't give us a chance to try and stop her. She ran out of the room," defends Cassie.

"Do you know where she went?" asks Cross.

"I'm in the passage," comes Amy's voice.

Cross and the She Spies look around, trying to find where her voice is coming from. After a moment, they realize that her voice is coming through their hidden microphones. They waste no time in trying to get details.

"And where's this passage?" asks Cassie, speaking into the microphone.

"Go to the storage room in the back. I left the rug folded up and the door in the floor unlocked and open," she explains.

"Right, we'll be there ASAP," answers Cassie.

"Good. I gotta go. I think I hear something," finishes Amy.

After a second, Cross speaks into his microphone, noting how they were strangely all connected.

"Be careful. These guys are dangerous," he says to her.

Amy is silent for a moment.

"Thanks," she says finally.

Amy goes silent so she can follow Nikolai, leaving Cross to smile to himself. The She Spies notice, but don't say anything. Instead, they turn their focus to getting Amy back safely, as well as retrieving and detaining Nikolai.

As Cross directs the girls to go help Amy, he looks over and sees Duncan, a now conscious Gavin, and the policemen exiting the front office. He walks over to them.

"Ah, Mr. Marcel," he says to Gavin.

Gavin remains silent, glaring at him and refusing to speak. He had never liked Cross and his arrest only made things worse. Cross shakes his head and smiles at him, despite this.

"I'm glad you decided to finally cooperate with us. It would be in your best interest to continue to do so," he says to him.

"It would be in my best interest if I had killed you both when I had the chance," says Gavin.

Cross walks closer to Gavin, so he is only inches away. He looks him in the eye without saying anything for a moment, exchanging unspoken words. Finally, he speaks.

"Listen, I know how you treated her before. And I know you've contributed highly to this cartel. I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure you go to jail for a very long time," he says dead seriously, "Take him away."

Gavin glares at him as the policemen drag him outside. Now that he's gone, Cross looks at Duncan. Of course, Duncan thinks that he's going to get yelled at for going into the field, so he jumps to his own defense.

"I'm sorry for going into the field, sir. It's just that Amy said-" he starts.

"We'll talk about that later," says Cross, revealing nothing.

"Okay," says Duncan, automatically thinking that he was just planning a harsh punishment for later.

"The girls told me how you saved Amy. I wanted to thank you," he continues.

"It was my pleasure sir," says Duncan, unsure of how to take Cross's kindness.

Down in the passage, Amy slows down. Only a few of the lights are on, so there are shadows being cast throughout the tunnel, making it difficult to go as fast as she wanted to. It also didn't help that she was getting the suspicion that someone was in the tunnel with her.

"I had the feeling you'd end up down here. You always were smart," comes Nikolai's voice.

Amy stops, looking around to try and see him. Since he's still in the shadows, she can't see him. She wants to proceed, but she knows better than to do that when she doesn't know where an enemy is. It was definitely not an ideal situation.

"What do you want? And why are you still here?" she asks, her hands poised at her sides, ready to pull out Gavin's gun if she had to.

"Silly child. Do you really think I'd leave any unfinished business?" he asks, stepping into the light.

To her horror, he is pointing his gun at her. She is frozen in place, unsure of what to do. She couldn't reach for the gun that she had because he could shoot her before she even got her hand on it. Either way, things didn't look good.

"Oh come on…unfinished business isn't that bad," she says, getting more nervous by the second.

Nikolai just shakes his head and keeps his gun poised. He's intent on doing what he had stayed to do and no one, especially not a teenage girl, was going to sway his opinion.

"Too bad. You were an asset to the cartel," says Nikolai.

With that, he starts pulls the trigger. The bullet only skims her shoulder, but it knocks her back into the shadows. A thud follows, signaling to Nikolai that Amy has fallen. Satisfied and thinking that he had killed her, he puts his gun away and turns to leave.

"Not so fast," comes Cassie's voice from the shadows.

The girls come out of the shadows and stand there, in face off position. Nikolai turns, figuring that he might as well get them too, since they were the enemy. Any damage he could do to the feds was good in his book, and this would make it easier on him in the future if he got away, since there would be less federal agents on his tail.

"Ah, girls. I see you came to try and save your friend. Unfortunately for you, you're too late," he says, smirking.

"What are you talking about?" asks Shane.

He doesn't even need to point. Their eyes fall on Amy's feet, which are just under the edge of one of the lights. They gasp, thinking the worst has happened. They don't know that she was only skimmed on the shoulder. It doesn't help that she's not moving, laying still as if she had actually been fully hit by the bullet.

"How could you do this to her? She's just a kid," says DD.

"Same way I'm going to do it to you," he replies, pulling out his gun.

To their dismay, he is too far away to get to without getting shot. Even if they went into the shadows, he could just as easily shoot wildly and most likely hit them. There's not much they can do at the moment.

"You don't want to shoot us," says Shane.

"Why shouldn't I?" says Nikolai.

"Because…" Shane looks at Cassie and DD.

"Because we'd really like to stay alive," says DD.

The others nod in agreement.

"Too bad that's not going to happen. No one messes with a Marcel and lives," he says.

Just as he goes to pull the trigger, the girls squint their eyes shut, nervous about being shot. They cringe, wondering who was going to be hit and thinking that that may be their last moment together.

After a few moments of silence, the girls open their eyes. They look down at themselves and then at each other to see if any of them had been shot. Seeing no injuries, they look to where Nikolai had been standing. To their amazement, he is laying on the ground in the light, holding his shoulder and cringing in pain, rocking back and forth a little. Confused looks fill their faces.

"Correction. No one messes with a Cross," says Amy, stepping out of the shadows and lowering the gun.

The girls' look of confusion turns to amazement when they see her hear her voice. What adds to the amazement is that they never would've thought that she was the type of person who would shoot somebody. Then again, it was a life or death situation.

"What happened?" asks Shane.

"I shot him," says Amy, stating the obvious.

"We thought he shot you," says Cassie as Amy walks over to Nikolai.

"He did, but it only skimmed my shoulder," she explains, wincing a little at moving, motioning to her bleeding shoulder before leaning over and picking up Nikolai's gun.

She stands there, pointing both guns down at the injured criminal. She glances up at the She Spies.

"You guys may want to detain him before he gets up. Though I highly doubt that's going to happen voluntarily any time soon, it would probably be a good idea to do it now," she says, grinning.

The girls grin in response and walk over to her, happy that they were all alive. The only way things could've been better would be if no one had gotten shot. But, sometimes, sacrifices had to be made to get things done, especially when things were as serious as that day had been. Now they could all look forward to returning to the beach house and relaxing for a while. If Cross allowed it, that is.


	9. Chapter 9

**CH. 9**

Back at the beach house, the She Spies are sitting around the television, snacking on some popcorn and watching a movie. They figure that they'd earned it with all the work they've had to do over the past week or so with the cartel case. They had asked Amy to join them, but she had declined, saying that she wanted to go sit down on the beach for a while. She hadn't given a reason, but the girls suspected why she had chosen to do that. They didn't question and allowed her to go off by herself.

The girls are enjoying their movie when their viewing is interrupted by the sound of the doorbell. They look over at the clock and then at each other, wondering who would be coming to their house since they hadn't been expecting anyone.

"Who could that be?" asks Shane.

"I don't know, but there's one way to find out," says Cassie, standing up.

"Do you want us to pause the movie for you?" asks DD.

Cassie thinks for a moment before shaking her head. She had seen the movie before, so she wasn't too worried about missing a few minutes. Besides, she was only answering the door and she didn't think it would take too long.

"Nah, I'll be back in a minute. Unless it's a salesman or something," she says, walking towards the door.

"In which case you either don't answer or you tell them to go away and shut the door in their face," says Shane.

DD looks at Shane, a curious look on her face.

"You'd really be that rude?" she asks.

"If it gets them to leave me alone, then you bet your butt I will," replies Shane, nodding.

Cassie smiles at Shane's comment and opens the door. Standing on the stoop is Cross, in his street clothes. She's surprised to see him, but she's also, in a way, not surprised. There hadn't really been time to catch up after the arrests were made and they figured that he'd probably want to catch up with Amy at some point.

"Cross? What're doing here?" she asks.

"That's a fine way to greet your superior," says Cross.

"Hey, we're off the clock now, so you're not my superior until tomorrow," replies Cassie, grinning and moving to the side so Cross can enter.

Cross gives a half smile in return as he enters the house. Cassie shuts the door behind him and he glances around, seeing the others. The only one he doesn't see is Amy. He hadn't had the chance to talk to her after the cartel members were arrested because he had to deal with the police and then do some quick paperwork. This was the first chance he had had to see any of them since then.

"Is Amy here?" he asks.

"Actually, she's down on the beach," says Cassie.

"Thanks," he replies.

As he starts to walk by the living room, he slows down for a moment. He wanted to make sure that he didn't forget to greet the other She Spies. He wouldn't hear the end of it if he didn't.

"Ladies," he greets, nodding to Shane and DD.

"Hi," says DD, in her usual perky manner.

"What're you doing here? Is there some mission we don't know about? 'Cuz if there is, can't it at least wait until after the movie's over?" asks Shane, pouting a little.

"Relax, there's no mission. Not today anyway," Cross answers, smiling and shaking his head as he walks by them and out the back door.

Cassie sits back down on the couch and picks up her glass of soda. Shane looks at her.

"So what did he want?" she asks.

"He came to talk to Amy didn't he?" asks DD, looking over at Cassie.

"Yeah, looks like it may finally be the time for that talk they didn't want to have," Cassie replies.

"It's about time," says Shane, taking some popcorn.

Cassie and DD nod in agreement and return to watching their movie. They know that things with Cross and Amy should go smoothly, so they're not worried. Besides, it was a good movie and they wanted to concentrate on it and enjoy it.

Down on the beach, Amy is sitting quietly on a bench, looking out at the ocean and going over the day's events in her head. There is a light breeze that is blowing her hair just a little as she sits there, soaking in the last of the sunset. As she's looking out over the horizon, Cross comes up beside the bench. He stands there for a moment, watching his niece and noticing how much she's grown over the years. His thoughts turn to past events, but he doesn't keep them there for long.

"Mind if I sit down?" he asks.

Amy looks up to see who is standing next to the bench. She sees that it's her uncle, so she turns her attention back to the ocean.

"Sure," she says.

Cross sits down next to Amy. He is silent for another moment, doing as she is, looking out over the sea. They both know that there are things that need to be talked about, but neither wants to be the one to bring it up first. Finally, Cross reaches in his pocket and takes out the locket that Duncan had found on the floor of the beach house. He had given it to Cross, figuring that he would want to be the one to give it back to her.

"Duncan found this on the floor," he says, handing the necklace to Amy.

"Thanks," she says, taking the locket.

Silence follows again as clasps the locket in her hand. She doesn't put it in her pocket or even put it on, just sits there with it clasped in her hand. It was an emotional moment for her, because it was almost like he was giving it to her again, which made her think of the past. She missed the way things were, but wasn't sure if he'd allow them to return that way. She tried her best to get those thoughts out of her mind, knowing that she'd want to cry if she continued to think about it too much and she really didn't want to do that in front of her uncle.

"How's your arm?" asks Cross finally.

"Still hurts a little on occasion, but it's going away," she answers.

"That's good," he replies.

He pauses for a second, taking a deep breath.

"Duncan told me why you did what you did today," Cross says finally.

"I had to. He wanted to kill you for sending me to rehab," she replies, continuing to look out over the ocean and avoiding his gaze.

Cross smiles to himself, seeing that what Duncan had said about her doing everything she had done to save his life was true. It surprised him, because she had been acting like she hated him like he was the enemy and he usually only made things worse. And yet, she still helped him. It was one of those things that couldn't help but make you smile.

Silence follows once again. This time it persists for a little longer. Cross knows there is one more thing he wanted to bring up, sensing that tonight was finally the night to bring up that day from the past. Amy knows what Cross is going to bring up, but she's no longer nervous.

"I only did it for your own good, you know," he says, looking out over the horizon.

"I know," she says, doing the same.

"It was also to protect you from Gavin," he says.

Finally, Amy looks at Cross. She hadn't known that he had known about Gavin beating her when he got angry. She could tell that that's what he was referring to.

"You knew about that?" she asks.

"Well, it wasn't too hard to figure out when I'd see you with new bruises. Plus, I knew you don't wear makeup often, so when you did I figured something was probably up," he explains, turning to meet her gaze.

Amy smiles at his mention of makeup. He was right, she almost never wore makeup. The fact that he was allowing himself to remember things from the past made her eyes glass over with tears. She immediately turns to face the water again, not wanting him to see her cry. Sure, she had known that it was for her own good, but when she realized that he had known it would help to protect her from Gavin, it made everything hit her a little harder.

"I also realize now that you didn't intentionally go back on your word," adds Cross, looking back out over the ocean.

"I should've tried harder though. I could've told mom and dad when you asked me to, but I didn't. And even when I tried to get through to Gavin, he wouldn't listen. I should've broken up with him a long time ago, but I didn't," explains Amy.

"Everyone was at fault here. It wasn't just one or the either. Everyone had a choice and could've done something differently."

Amy looks at Cross. Their gazes lock for a moment, with unspoken words being exchanged. After a moment, a tear falls down Amy's cheek. They both know that everything's okay now. Amy smiles at her uncle, who returns it with one of his own. Without saying anything, Amy leans in and hugs him. He smiles once more to himself as he embraces her, thoughts of the past flooding back to them both. They have both longed to have things return to normal between them and they finally have.

Since they're in their own world for the moment, they don't hear the She Spies approaching. The girls had noticed that Cross and Amy had been outside for a while, so they figured they'd go see how things were progressing. They can tell that things were worked out, at least for the time being. They girls look at each other for a moment and smile.

"Aww, how sweet," Shane says, purposely louder than necessary.

Cross and Amy part and look up to see the three She Spies standing behind them, grinning. Amy sniffles a little and wipes the tear off of her cheek.

"Leave them alone," says Cassie.

"Yeah, it's a family moment," says DD.

The girls look at each other and grin. Then they look back at Amy and Cross.

"Speaking of family moments, which really has nothing to do with what I'm about to say," starts Cassie, "we talked it over. We know that you're supposed to be going home within the next couple of days and we decided that you're welcome to stay here as long as you want, Amy."

Amy looks at her uncle before looking back at the She Spies.

"Really?" she asks, wiping the tear off of her cheek.

"Yup," says DD, nodding and smiling.

"As long as you behave yourself," adds Cross.

Amy looks back at her uncle. She looks at him with a annoyed look on her face. For a moment, they are unsure if she's upset or not.

"I will," she says finally, smiling, showing that her annoyed look had only been an act.

Cross smiles in reply as the She Spies laugh at her dramatics.

"So, it's still early and the movie's not over yet, you guys wanna watch it with us?" asks Shane.

Amy smiles.

"Sure, why not?" she says.

The girls look at Cross, knowing that he's not usually into that sort of thing. Usually he's all business. His answer surprises them all.

"I suppose I can squeeze in a movie. The paperwork can be finished tomorrow," he says.

Everyone smiles as Amy and Cross stand up from the bench. As they all walk towards the house, Amy lifts up her arms and puts the locket around her neck. Cross sees this. Amy can sense him looking at her, so she looks back at him and smiles. He smiles in return and they go back into the house to finish watching the movie, knowing that, in the end, they were all able to pull through it all. And that's what can make life worth living sometimes - especially when you have friends and family to help you do so.

**THE END**

Note: I was thinking about maybe adding another story or two after this, with Amy still in them, so keep your eye open for them:)


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